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EGYPT 



PV ^r 

CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT \f* 

Author of "A Simple Story of the Orient," "A Handbook of Legen- 
dary and Mythological Art/' etc. 



WITH ONE HUNDRED AND SIX ILLUSTRATIONS. 



^ . 






BOSTON: 
D. LOTHROP & COMPANY, 

FRANKLIN ST., CORNER OF HAWLEY. 



COPYRIGHT BY 

D. LOTHROP & CO. 
1880. 



Press of Rockwell and Chukciiill, 
39 Arch St., Boston, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



On Phil^e. Frontispiece, 




Papyrus 


ii 


On the Edge of the Desert 


!7 


Water-wheel on the Nile 


21 


The Nilometer, near Cairo 


2 5 


Shadoof .... 


29 


Ptah or Phtha . . 


3 1 


Approach to Assouan 


33 


Scribe ..... 


35 


Pyramids of Sakkara, near Memphis 


37 


Distant View of the Pyramids . 


39 


A Trip to the Pyramids — old style 


41 


Interior Views of the Great Pyramid 


43 


Stepped Pyramid 


45 


Landing Place at Assouan 


47 


Ascent of the Pyramids 


S 1 


Ladies at a Party 


54 


Lotus ..... 


55 


Portico of Temple of Denderah 


57 


Women Weaving . 


60 


Khem-Ket and Reshpu 


62 


Bes holding Nosegays . 


64 


Great Hall at Karnak . 


66 


Atum ...,., 


68 


vii. 





Vlll. 



List of Illustrations, 



Canaanitish Immigration into Egypt 

Black Slaves with their Families 

.Ancient Turquoise Mines 

Pyramids of Gizeh 

Egyptian Car and Horses 

Harper in Tomb at Thebes 

Bust of Cephren 

Set, Ramses II., and Horus 

Crocodiles on the Upper Nile . 

Thoth .... 

Grottoes of Silsilis 

War Chariot with Furniture. 

Ancient Egyptian Coat of Mail 

Golden Ewers and Basins 

Box — in the Berlin Museum 

Assault of a Fort 

Propylon at Karnak 

Columns and Obelisk, Karnak . 

Foreign Captives making Bricks 

Remains of Temple, Abydos 

Colossi of Thebes 

Columns of Temple, Luxon 

Mut .... 

An Ethiopian Princess Travelling 

Osiris, Isis and Horus . 

Bottles of Blue-glass 

The Hall of Columns at Karnak 

The Judgment Hall of Osiris . 

A Poulterer's Shop 

Colossal Statue of Ramses the Great 

Investiture of a High Priest 

Phalanx of the Khita 



List of Illustrations. 



IX. 





PAGE, 


Ramses Slaying Captives 


J 75 


Great Temple at Isamboul 


179 


Palace of Ramses III., Medinet-Abu . 


. 185 


Christian Symbols at Philae 


191 


Dress of a King 


192 


Egyptian Palm Grove . 


*95 


Tombs of the Kings at Thebes 


211 


Pyramid at Assur in Nubia 


217 


An Egyptian Gentleman Fishing 


219 


Towing the Dahabieh . 


229 


Pharaoh's Bed on the Island of Philas . 


23S 


Portico of Temple at Philae 


239 


Hypostyle Hall, Karnak 


243 


Portico and Temple at Esneh . 


246 


Erment, or Hormonthis, near Thebes . 


253 


Cataract of the Nile . 


259 


Sarcophagus . 


262 


Cleopatra's Needle 


267 


Pompey's Pillar 


283 


Nubian Serpent Charmers 


291 


Captive Jews in the Hippodrome at Alexandria 


297 


Female playing on a Guitar 


301 


The Monastery of St. Catherine 


3°3 


Windlass at the Convent 


3°S 


View from the Citadel of Cairo 


3i5 


Egyptian Girl . 


3i8 


Egyptian Woman . 


321 


Watching Fields in Egypt 


333 


Distant View of Cairo . 


337 


Mosque of Said . 


339 


Mosque of Mohammed Ali 


342 


A Roadside Well . 


343 



List of Illustrations. 



Money-Changer at Siout 

Camel Driver . 

A Shadoof 

Sand-storm in the Desert 

Nile Boat 

French Army Passing the Great Sphinx 

Bust of Cleopatra at Denderah 

The Doum Palm in Nubia 

Bringing Water from the Nile 

In the Suburbs of Cairo 

Bedouin Women Grinding Corn 

Egyptian Fellaheen 

Port Said 

Crossing the River in Nubia 

Cairene Water-seller 

Fellaheen at work on the Can; 

Map of the Canal 

Town of Suez . 

Caravan starting from Suez 

Call to Prayer . 



347 
35 1 
358 
363 
369 

379 
380 

3*3 
386 

393 
398 
411 

415 
4i7 
419 

421 

437 
439 
445 
4^3 



\ 



EGYPT. 



CHAPTER I. 



KINGS OF MEMPHIS. 4400 TO 3300 B.C. 



EGYPT holds a most 
important place in 
history, for, if it was not 
absolutely the oldest na- 
tion of the earth, it was 
the source of civilization, 
art and letters to all the 
world, and it is impossi- 
ble to show from what 

PAPYRUS. 

other nation, if any, 
Egypt derived its mythological religion, its philos- 
ophy and science. Nearly all the arts and sciences 

11 




12 Kings of Memphis. 

of the present clay originated in Egypt — architect- 
ure and sculpture, medicine, chemistry, mathe- 
matics, astronomy, writing, and the use of paper, 
and many of the mechanical arts as now practised, 
are only such as were known and employed in 
Egypt ages ago. 

When Greek history begins, Egypt was on the 
verge of its decline. Even in the days of Abra- 
ham, the Pyramids had been built and copper 
mines worked on Mount Sinai ; and as, according 
to the Jewish tradition, he led his herds to drink 
in the Nile, he must have seen many of the monu- 
ments whose ruins now tell of the advanced state 
of Egyptian art at that time. Moses, we are told, 
was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, 
and though Ave have no history of those times in 
books, their history was written in hieroglyphics, 
on temples and obelisks, long before the Greek 
alphabet was known. 

Ancient Egypt was also the land of the greatest 
luxury. Even prior to the captivity of the Israel- 
ites, gold and silver ornaments, fine colors and 
embroideries were in common use, and at the time 
of the Exodus the luxury and magnificence of the 
wealthy almost equalled that of the great Cleopa- 
tra, the most luxurious queen the world has ever 



Egypt the Source of Civilization. 13 

seen. Twelve centuries before the birth of Christ 
the Nile Valley was filled with cities and palaces, 
vast temples and magnificent tombs ; and there is 
scarcely an article of comfort or luxury now in 
use that has not its counterpart in some of the 
pictures, still fresh and bright, on the walls of the 
Tombs of the Ancient Kings of Egypt. 

"Hail! Egypt! land of ancient pomp and pride, 
Where Beauty walks by hoary Ruin's side; 
Where Plenty reigns, and still the seasons smile, 
And rolls — rich gift of God ! — exhaustless Nile. 
Land of the pyramid and temple lone! 
Whose fame, a star, on earth's dark midnight shone; 
Bright seat of wisdom, graced with arts and arms, 
Ere Rome was built, or smiled fair Athen's charms; 
What owes the past, the living world to thee ? 
All that refines, sublimes humanity. 
The tall papyrus, whispering seems to say, 
Here rose the letters Cadmus bore away. 
The Greek to thee his Jove and Bacchus owes, 
With many a tale that charms, and thought that glows 
In thy famed schools the Samian learnt his lore, 
That souls, though wandering, lived for evermore; 
The giant structures piled on Gizeh's plain 
Speak of the sages watching heaven's bright train, 
Who first years, months divided — traced afar 
The comet's course, and named each glittering star. 



What though no more the priest on Isis calls, 
Or grand processions sweep from Memphis' walls, 
Praying the flood to rise o'er bower and field, 
Still swell the waves, and wonted blessings yield; 



14 Kings of Memphis. 

And sweet the stream to traveller's thirsty lip, 
As when the Egyptian deemed it heaven to sip: 
And green the flags, and fair the lotus-flower, 
As when that babe, within his bulrush-bower, 
The embryo leader, Fame's immortal heir, 
Smiled on the royal maids who found him there." 

To the history of what other country can one 
come with the delightful anticipations he may well 
bring to that of Egypt ? To those who have vis- 
ited that land, memory recalls its scenes with pan- 
oramic exactness and rapidity. To those whose 
journeys have been made by aid of books while sit- 
ting at their own firesides, imagination will present 
the pictures she has painted with magic power — 
pictures of groves of stately palms slowly nodding 
their feathery tops in the lazy breeze, which 
nothing less lofty than themselves can feel ; and 
orange-trees, snowy with their bridal flowers or 
laden with golden fruit ; pictures of the unbounded 
desert-sands, ever a striking emblem of a wasted 
life — no growth, no verdure, nothing telling of 
development or power, nothing reaching up towards 
heaven ; — and there are trains of camels, stretch- 
ing so far away that all shape and form is lost, 
while their towering burdens move steadily on ; — 
pictures of swarthy men in fez or turban, with 
flowing garments and broad sashes of silk or cash- 



The Egyptian People. 15 

mere, the ample folds of which conceal alike the 
sacred talisman, the precious jewel, and the glit- 
tering knife, while a sword or scimetar flashes by 
the side ; — and veiled women, whose dark, dream y 
eyes tell of that languid, Houri-like beauty pecu- 
liar to their race and clime ; — pictures, too, of 
noble mosques, with marble courts and flowing 
fountains, and their graceful minarets springing 
lightly into air; of bazaars crowded with repre- 
sentatives of every nation that the sun shines 
upon ; donkeys and donkey-boys, camels and their 
drivers; water-carriers, with full or empty goat- 
skins ; women with their children perched astride 
their shoulders ; elegant carriages, preceded by 
gayly-dressed runners, who clear the way with 
shining rods ; sailors and soldiers, monks and 
sisters of charity, all jostling and crowding each 
other in these Cairene bazaars, while the mer- 
chants sit cross-legged on their cushions, and 
smoke their pipes, or sip their coffee with an air 
of solemnity and wisdom. 

All these pictures may be seen in living, mov- 
ing reality in Egypt, and beyond this manifest 
life lies the study of a past, full of wonder and 
mighty import. 



16 Kings of Memphis. 

Eighty years have now elapsed since the discov- 
ery of the Rosetta stone gave to the world the 
charmed key with which the secrets of the Egyp- 
tian monuments and writings have been unlocked, 
and their rich stores of historical truth made avail- 
able. 

This famous stone was found by M. Boussard, 
near Rosetta, in 1799. It is a slab of black basalt, 
about seven and a half feet in length by two and a 
half in breadth, and upon it is inscribed a decree in 
honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes. This decree was cut 
into the stone in three languages : the hieroglyphic, 
the demotic or enchorial, and the Greek ; thus it 
furnishes the means of deciphering the ancient 
Egyptian inscriptions and papyri. 

Since this inscription was deciphered, facts 
enough have been discovered, compared and veri- 
fied, to afford a comparatively satisfactory history 
of Egypt, made up entirely front the incontrovert- 
ible testimony of the hieroglyphics, while the pre- 
historic age, with its gods, demi-gods and manes, 
still affords (and apparently always must do so) 
a mysterious realm, in which imagination may 
revel ad infinitum, and meet no refutation of its 
wildest fancies. 

Geographically, Egypt is one of the most singu- 




ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT. 



The River Nile. 19 

lar and interesting countries in the world. It em- 
braces, at the largest calculation, but seventeen 
thousand square miles — about one-fourteenth of 
the size of the state of Texas. 

Herodotus called Egypt "the gift of the Nile," 
and this name well expresses the importance of 
that river, which, entering Egypt near the island 
of Philse, flows down to the Mediterranean, bear- 
ing and bestowing the entire prosperity of this 
wondrous land — for the Nile Valley, (a green 
belt from six to ten miles wide) and the Delta, 
(which lies between the two branches of the river, 
below Cairo) and the Fayum, (which province 
owes its fertility to the irrigation from the Nile) 
make, in fact, all of Egypt ; the remainder is 
desert sand or quarried mountain. 

Wherever the Nile flows there is fertility ; else- 
where, only desolation and sterility. The richness 
of the Nile deposit is such that it is only necessary 
to scatter the seed on the ground it has covered — 
no plough, no labor is required, and time only in- 
creases the richness of this soil. At present the- 
loam near the first cataract has a depth of five 
feet, and that of the Delta four. 

From its junction with the river Atbara (called 
also the Black River, on account of the richness 



20 Kings of Memphis. 

of its deposit) the Nile flows fifteen hundred 
miles with no affluent. Alone it opposes a burn- 
ing sun ; alone it flows and overflows, and brings 
each year the seed-time and secures the harvest, 
as if a beneficent heart and controlling thought 
directed its course, and we can quite understand 
that to the ancients it was a sacred river, and the 
dwelling-place of a great god. 

The rise of the river has been measured 
by means of nilometers, from the most ancient 
days, and it is probable that each important 
city had its own indicator of the height of the 
water. The most important nilometers are, that 
upon the Island of Rhocla, opposite Cairo, and 
one at Elephantine, near Assouan — the latter is 
in ruins. At Rhocla, the slender pillar upon which 
the measure is marked is in the midst of a square 
enclosure which formerly had a dome, and traces 
of Cufic inscriptions still remain. Here the rise of 
the river is carefully noted, and the people warned 
of any signs of a flood. The height of the water 
formerly regulated the amount of taxation, and 
Pliny says that a rise of twelve cubits brought 
famine ; thirteen, starvation ; fourteen, cheerful- 
ness ; fifteen, safety ; and sixteen, delight. For 
this reason many of the statues of the Nile, of the 




!|!|J|i|i;.: ' 

ffff 



The "Shadoof." 23 

Roman period, are represented with sixteen chil- 
dren playing around the venerable god of the 
river. 

In later years, the rise of the Nile has exceeded 
the average of many centuries. The regularity 
with which this river has risen at the same time 
to about the same height, has furnished one of the 
most wonderful physical phenomena of the world. 
Artificial irrigation is carried on by means of 
water-wheels and the shadoof, and the water is 
lifted in precisely the same way as by the primi- 
tive well-sweep; one well is close down to the 
river, another just above it, and so on until the 
top of the bank is reached, and the water is poured 
into ditches which divide the fields into square 
patches. The "shadoof" employs hundreds of 
men, women and children ; their work begins with 
the dawn and ends only with the night. The 
motions of these people are slow and rhythmic, 
and they often sing a monotonous sort of chant 
while they dip, dip, dip, and the rude machinery 
creaks out a weird accompaniment. 

In ancient times Egypt was called " the double 
land," and Upper and Lower Egypt were divided 
as they now are. 

The former extended from Elephantine Island, 



24 Kings of Memphis. 

opposite the modern town of Assouan, on the 
right bank of the river, to the neighborhood of the 
Memphian district on the left bank — that is to 
say, the country now called Said by the Arabs. 

Lower Egypt comprised the remainder of the 
country, and corresponded to the Delta of the 
Greek writers, called "the Behereh" by the 
Arabs. In the inscriptions, Egypt is called Kem 
or Kami, which signifies " the black land," a name 
probably taken from the color of the arable soil of 
the country. From the earliest times the whole 
country was divided into districts or nomes; 
Upper Egypt embracing twenty-two, and Lower 
Egypt twenty nomes. Each of these divisions 
had its own capital city, and its especial divinity, 
to whose worship the temples were dedicated. 
The nomes were separated by boundary stones, 
and groat care was taken to preserve the limits as 
they were originally fixed. 

The hieroglyphics show that though all the 
nomes were under the king, yet, in a sense, each 
one had its own independent government, and 
the office of captain or governor passed by in- 
heritance to the eldest grandson on the mother's 

[A table giving the names of the nomes and of their capital 
dties will be found at the end of this book.] 




THE KILOMETER, NEAR CAIRO. 



Mena. 27 

side, according to the ancient Egyptian law. 

Feuds, of greater or less importance, frequently 
arose between these districts, and the entire coun- 
try sometimes became involved in them ; in fact, 
it occasionally happened that the ruling family 
was dethroned and the captain of a victorious 
nome made himself the king, and the founder of 
a new dynasty ; thus the seat of government was 
changed from one city to another. 

The earliest sovereign, of whom there is exact 
record, was Mena. His name signifies " the con- 
stant," and was written Min, Menis, Meines, 
Meinios and Meneres. He founded Memphis, the 
principal city of Lower Egypt, of which there now 
remain a few fragments of its temples and palaces, 
and a number of mounds, which yield nothing in 
return for their examination by the curious stu- 
dent of Memphian history. 

Tradition says that Mena also constructed an 
enormous dyke, and turned the course of the Nile 
to the east, in order to build his citj r upon the 
former river-bed. It is the opinion of M. Linant- 
Bey, that this dyke is one with that of Cocheiche, 
which now, six thousand years after its construc- 
tion by King Mena, serves to restrain the inunda- 
tions of the Nile. 



28 Kings of Memphis. 

The existing personal accounts of this king are 
extremely brief. Is is said that he first introduced 
pomp and luxury into Egypt, and for this reason, 
in later years Tnephacthus ordered a curse against 
his memory to be engraved and set up in the tem- 
ple of Amon-ra or Jupiter, at Thebes. 

Mena established laws for the worship of the 
gods, and the temple was the first building to be 
erected. It formed the centre and the most im- 
portant feature of the city, which, as it grew, had 
new temples added, each one making a point about 
which other edifices were clustered. Thus each 
quarter of the town had its own temple and its 
distinctive name. Other cities were laid out after 
the same plan and from their arrangement a con- 
fusion of names arises — Memphis, for example, 
was known as Anbu-hat or "the white wall," 
a name derived from the fortifications ; Men-nofer 
or " the good place ; " Chanofer or " the good ap- 
pearance," and Macha-ta or "the land of the 
scales." Men-nofer is the name most used in in- 
scriptions, and from this the Greeks made Memphis. 

The principal god of Memphis, to whom its 
most celebrated temple was dedicated, was Patah, 
who, according to the Memphian doctrine, was the 
Father of all Gods, the Architect of the World, 



Mena. 



31 



and corresponded to the classical Hephaestus or 
Vulcan. 

Mena also excavated a lake which lay without 
the city and was connected with the Nile by a 
canal. 

As a warrior, he is credited with having made 
a successful campaign against the Libyan tribes. 



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Ptah or Phtha, KinGT of the North and South. 



He is said to have met a frightful death, being 
seized and killed by a crocodile. 

In the thirteenth century of the Christian era, 
the ruins of Memphis were visited by Abcl-ul-Latif, 
an Arabian physician, who gave a poetic and en- 
thusiastic description of them, and an account of 
the so-called " green chamber," which was hewn 
out of a single block of stone, and measured about 



32 Kings of Memphis. 

fifteen feet in height, by thirteen and a half in 
length, and ten in width. 

After Thebes, Memphis is the city most fre- 
quently mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions, and 
many facts are given concerning its government 
and court, its laws and customs. Among its 
priests were princes of the royal family, who often 
exercised a powerful influence upon the welfare 
of the whole country. 

The King, called Perao, (which means "of the 
great house," and is the origin of the bible Pharaoh), 
was frequently named as "his holiness," and 
seems to have stood before his subjects both as a 
god and a ruler. The deepest personal respect 
was shown him, his subjects prostrating themselves 
before him, unless graciously relieved from this 
homage by special favor. He commanded services 
from great and small alike, and rewarded them in 
a regal manner, with gifts of lands, slaves and 
maidens, and even by honorable decorations, such 
as the necklace of the gold nub. 

The wife, daughters and grand-daughters of the 
king were called " prophetesses of the goddesses 
Hathor or Neit," and were confided to the lords 
of the court for care and instruction. 

The court was respected by the people on 




Scribe with his inkstand on the table. One pen ia put 
behind his ear, and he is writing with another. 



Scribes. 35 

account of the wisdom and virtues of its members, 
as much as for its splendor. The nobles were 
charged with the superintendence of the treasury, 
the magazines of supplies, the buildings and works 
in stone, and even with the care of the king's 
household, the music, and 
other entertainments for 
the royal pleasure. 

The army was led by 
experienced officers, and 
a commander-in-general 
organized and directed 
all military expeditions. There were many learned 
men, as well as teachers of all kinds, and literary 
composers in Memphis. A great number of scribes 
were employed there, and were divided into vari- 
ous classes, according to their duties, which ranged 
from the writing of a sort of diary of domestic 
events up to the important work of the " pharaonic 
bureaucracy." All scribes were eligible for the 
highest rank of their order, which was given as 
the reward of intelligence and fidelity. 

Order and exactitude characterized this ancient 
government, from the king down to the humblest 
man in the land, and this state of things was the 
legitimate fruit of the blind obedience, which was 



36 Kings of Memphis. 

exacted alike from the royal secretary and the 
wretched worker, under the lash of the equally 
obedient overseer or task-master. 

"But Memphis' kings are less than ashes now. 
The crowns e'en dust, that decked each royal brow. 
Goshen, where Israel toiled, no trace retains 
Of all the towers they built, when scourged in chains. 
Memphis herself, as cursed for injuries piled 
On Judah's head, long, long hath strewn the wild. 
Where is the site to soft-eyed Apis reared, 
That sacred bull, kings, blood-stained chiefs, revered? 
Where Vulcan's fane? and gorgeous as a dream, 
The gold-roofed palace raised by Nilus' stream ? 
No vestige meets the pilgrim's curious gaze ; 
O'er Memphis' site the turbaned robber strays ; 
Each wall is razed, each pillared shrine o'erthrown ; 
The sands drift on, the desert breezes moan ; 
Shades of the Pharaohs ! rise from marble sleep ! 
And o'er your lost, loved city bend and weep ! " 

The tables discovered at Sakkara and Abydus, 
together with the imperfect papyrus of Turin, fur- 
nish a list of the names of the sovereigns who 
followed Mena, but no other knowledge of them 
exists until the time of King Senoferu or " he who 
makes good." From his time the " speaking stones " 
reveal the history of their hoary long ago. 

Senoferu lived about 3766 B. c, and is the first 
king to whom the inscriptions give four titles of 
honor. 



Titles of Kings. 



37 



This custom was ordained by law. The first 
title invariably began with a sign symbolical of the 
god, " the sun Hor," who dispensed life and light, 
prosperity and happiness — the other titles set 
forth the praises of the king of the " double coun- 
try," in pompous words. Last of all, the name 




PYRAMIDS OF SAKKARA, NEAR MEMPHIS. 



which the king had received from his father, sur- 
rounded by a cartouche, was given. 

Senoferu was known as " the lord of truth," 
" the vanquisher of foreign peoples," and by many 
other high sounding titles. 

On the rocks of Wady-Magharah is clearly pict- 
ured a likeness of this king striking down an 
enemy — and the inscription speaks of him as the 
conqueror of the valleys of the mountains round 



38 Kings of Memphis. 

Sinai. These lands were very valuable on account 
of their copper ore and precious stones of blue and 
green color. At this day traces of miners may be 
seen in the caverns of this district, for the success- 
ors of Senoferu valued and maintained the rights 
which he had won and systematically profited hj 
these treasures. The De Prisse rolls call Senoferu 
"a good king over the whole country, and it is 
believed that the pryamid of Meidoum contains 
his remains. 

The tables of Sakkara and Abyclos, with the 
Turin papyrus and the writings of Manetho, are 
not sufficient to furnish a satisfactory list of the 
kings of the fourth and fifth dynasties, about 3700 
to 3300 B. c, and even the monuments differ as 
to their names and the order of their succession ; 
but the tables of Abydos and Sakkara agree in 
calling Khufu the successor of Senoferu. Khufu 
was called Suphis by Manetho and Saophis in the 
Theban list of kings, but by the Greeks and in 
modern times he is called Cheops, Chemnis or 
Chembres. 

The ancients represented Cheops as a tyrant and 
a brutal oppressor. They accused him of closing 
the temples lest the prayers of the people should 
shorten the time of daily labor, and it is even said 



Cheops. 



41 



that he was so detested, that no Egyptian would 
pronounce his name after his death. 

The few " speaking stones " which tell of this 
king give him a more honorable character. By them 




^^r^m. 



A TRIP TO THE PYRAMIDS-OLD STYLE. 

he is named as one of the bravest, and most active 
pharaohs ; an annihilator of his enemies, and the 
founder of several new towns. But everything else 
connected with this monarch sinks into insignifi- 



42 Kings of Memphis. % 

cance when compared to the great pyramid which 
he erected, and which bears his name. Xo one 
who sees this monument can doubt that twenty 
years were consumed in its erection, or that it was 
considered an Herculean task even by this old 
nation of monument builders. 

The process of building a pyramid was as fol- 
lows : first the nucleus was formed by the erection 
of a small pyramid upon the soil of the desert. It 
was built in steps and contained a stone chamber 
well constructed and finished. Then coverings were 
added until the final size was reached, and at last 
all was enclosed in a casing of hard stone, deftly 
fitted together and polished to a glassy surface. 
The pyramid, thus finished, presented a gigantic 
triangle on each of its four faces. 

The. stone used for the inner structure was found 
near the place of erection, but as the work pro- 
gressed, better material was brought from mountain 
quarries, and the vast labors thus accomplished 
are forcibly though silently told, by the numerous 
caverns in the Mokattam range, from which the 
finer stones were taken. 

But the covering of the magnificent pyramid of 
Cheops, called in the inscriptions "Rhut " or " the 
Lights," was hewn out of the "red mountain" of 




VIEW OF GALLERY IN THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



Quarries at Syene. 



45 



Syene, or the modern Assouan, many weary miles 
from the wonderful monument it was to adorn. 

This Syenite granite, hard as metal, and sprinkled 
with black and red, is capable of an exquisite 
polish, and was coveted by kings and architects as 
a crowning beauty to be added to their works. In 
the " red mountain " quarries the hand of the 
skilled workman may still be traced, by the marks 




STEPPED PYRAMID. 



of the chisel — the miner's hole — and, above all, 
by the giant statue, and mighty obelisk still hang- 
ing there as if spell-bound, half released and ever 
striving to escape from the unrelenting clasp of 
the stony nature which enfolds them. 

On the borders of the desert more than seventy 



46 Kings of Memphis. 

such pyramids once stood, but that of Cheops so 
far exceeded all others in beauty, and so towered 
above them all * that we may well fancy that, 
like the sheaves of Joseph's dream, the lesser ones 
bowed before it. There it still stands, in the midst 
of pyramids and tombs, the everlasting witness to 
the power of that great monarch of the distant 
past, with the grim Sphinx not far away, as if to 
guard its secrets. It is a tomb entombed, for the 
yellow sand has been piled up about it by the winds 
of heaven, as if they would cover up and hide 
away this remnant of a people and a king, long 
since departed. 

"The shadow of the Pyramids 
Fled round before the sun; 
By day it fled, 
It onward sped; 
And when its daily task was done, 

The moon arose, and round the plain 
The weary shadow fled again. 

"The Sphinx looked East, 
The Sphinx looked West, 

And North and South her shadow fell; 
How many times she sought for rest 

And found it not, no tongue may tell. 

•• But much it vexed the heart of greedy Time 

That neither rain nor snow, nor frost nor hail, 
Troubles the calm of the Egyptian clime; 

* 450.75 English feet high by 746 feet broad at base. 



Ehafra. 49 

For these for him, like heavy iron flail 
Against the palaces of kings prevail, 

And crumble down the loftiest pile, 
And eat the ancient hills away, 
And make the very mountains know decay. 

He cursed the mummies that they would not rot, 
He cursed the paintings that they faded not, 
And swore to terrible Memnon from his seat; 
But foiled awhile, to hide his great defeat, 
With his wide wings he blew the Libyan sand, 
And hid from mortal eyes the glories of the land." 

The tables of Abyclos and Sakkara name Rata- 
tef as the successor of Cheops, and then follows Kha- 
fra, whose wonderful statues have recently been 
brought to light. Khafra was named by the Greeks 
Chephren, Kephren, or Chabryes. He has been 
named both the brother and the son of Cheops, 
but the monuments do not speak of this rela- 
tion. His pyramid, near to that of Cheops, has 
been overshadowed by the discovery of a building 
in the desert, which is now associated with his 
name. It is constructed entirely of the stone of 
Assouan, and the glistening oriental alabaster ; it 
contains passages, and halls, and smaller rooms, 
succeeding one another, all without inscriptions of 
any sort. The workmanship of this building is 
simply marvellous, as much so as the truth that no 
clue can be found to the discovery of its purpose 



50 Kings of Memphis. 

or its maker. Eastwards, in a long chamber, a well 
was discovered containing several noble statues 
mostly in ruins, but that of King Khafra had 
suffered little injury. His name and titles are in- 
scribed near his foot ; the stone is of a green color 
and the whole work is that of a masterly sculptor. 

This statue is a precious treasure and "teaches 
us that in the beginning of history their works 
were an honor to the artists." 

The great Sphinx is not far distant from the 
pyramid of Khafra, and the name of this monarch 
is mentioned upon the slab or memorial stone 
which bears the inscriptions. This does not prove 
that the " Lion of the Night " (as the Arabs call 
the Sphinx) was made by command of Khafra. 

The Sphinx has the form of a lion and the head 
of a man. It is cut out of the solid rock with the 
exception of the fore-legs, which were hewn out 
and added, and extend fifty feet from the breast. 
A memorial tablet records the fact that Thutmes 
IV. built a temple at the breast of the Sphinx, as 
a gift of honor. This temple has been excavated, 
but the desert sands soon bury it from sight. 
Pliny says that this Sphinx was without doubt 
a local deity, and was treated with divine honors. 
It is now known to be a representation of Hor- 



~^x~= 




Jff 



ASCEOT OF THE PYBAMIDS 



The Fifth Dynasty. 53 

makhu, which is to say " Horus on the horizon," 
or the sun god of Heliopolis. 

Two later kings than Khafra, belonging to the 
fourth dynasty, are mentioned in the table of 
Abydos, Menkaura or Mencheres, and Shepseskaf. 
The first was distinguished for his justice, kind- 
ness and piety, and after death he was honored 
with the institution of a special worship dedicated 
to his memory. Of Shepseskaf little is known and 
his name seldom occurs in the hieroglyphics. 

The fifth dynasty (the last of the so-called 
Memphian kings, the most ancient sovereigns 
known in history), offers little of interest to the 
student of antiquity. 

It comprised the reigns of eight kings, Uskaf, 
Sahura, Keka, Noferfra, Ranuser, Menkauhor, Tat- 
kara and Unas. These rulers built pyramids, and 
made some conquests, but in truth left the king- 
dom much the same as they found it. 

Some notable men lived in the time of the fifth 
dynasty. Among them was the occupant of the 
spacious tomb of Ti, remarkable for its numerous 
pictures illustrative of the manners and customs of 
the ancient Egyptians. This tomb is situated in 
the Necropolis of Sakkara, towards the north of 
the Serapeum, and is much visited by travellers. 



54 



Kings of Memphis. 



The famous Prisse-papyrus was written by a 
son of king Tatkara, the Prince Patah-hotep. This 
document is in the National Library at Paris, and 
is called by the name of the man who bought it, 
at Thebes. It contains an old man's advice to 
young men, and instructs them as to the best 
manner of spending life and of making one's way 
in the world. It is very interesting, and, like all 
words of wisdom, is as well suited to the present 
time, as to that in which it was written. 




Ladies at a party, talking about their earriags. 



CHAPTER II. 

FROM THE SIXTH TO THE THIRTEENTH DYNASTY. 

3300 to 2233 B.C. 




LOTUS. 



TH E sixth dynasty 
forms the beginning 
of the second period of 
the ancient Egyptian em- 
pire, and the tombs of 
middle Egypt furnish 
much information con- 
cerning the history of this epoch. 

There is some doubt as to the name of the first 
king of this dynasty. Uskara and Teta are both 
of this period, but the weight of testimony is in 
favor of Teta. One theory is that they were con- 
temporary sovereigns, and each governed a portion 
of Egypt. M. Brugsch-Bey speaks of this as prob- 
able, but not positive. So little is known of these 

55 



56 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. 

kings that one turns naturally to their successor, 
Meri-ra Pepi, whose name and renown are well 
maintained in the ineffaceable characters upon the 
rocks of Wady-Magharah, the ruins of Tanis, the 
temple of Denderah, in many quarries, and above 
all, upon a monument found in the grave of Una, 
in the burial place of Memphis, and now preserved 
in the Museum of Boulak. The great importance 
of this monument was first recognized by M. 
Rouge. 

Una was a prominent man under King Teta, and 
served King Pepi in many important undertakings. 
" He was dearer to the heart of the king than all 
the dear nobles and all the other servants of 
the land," according to the text, and he was sent 
to Troja to obtain a sarcophagus, and many other 
stones for the construction of the pyramid of King 
Pepi, which was called " the good station " or " the 
good entrance. 1 ' The cutting of these stones in 
the caverns of Troja and their transportation was 
a wonderful work and necessitated the employment 
of warriors, sailors and ships. The records go on 
to tell of Una as the leader of a campaign against 
the Amu and the Hirusha of Lower Egypt ; another 
war against the land of Terehbah ; and various 
Other brave deeds, for which King Pepi conferred 



Una and Nitocris. 59 

on him great honors. The records in the tomb of 
Una are carried beyond the time of King Pepi, 
whose honors descended to his eldest son, Mer-en-ra, 
who made Una governor of Upper Egypt. He was 
the first man upon whom so high a dignity was 
conferred, and he was entrusted with the direction 
of all the public works, and the entire administra- 
tion of the affairs of this important division of the 
kingdom. 

An account of his many journeys in search of 
granite, alabaster and precious stones would be 
useless. Forests were cut down and vessels built 
to serve him on his expeditions, all of which he 
conducted to the full acceptance of " his holiness." 

But for the records of Una nothing would as yet 
be known of the reigns of Teta, Pepi and Mer-en-ra. 
A second son of King Pepi, called Nofer-ka-ra, next 
sat on the throne, concerning whom little is known, 
and after his time an impenetrable veil conceals all 
vestiges of the acts of many sovereigns whose names 
are found upon the tables of Abydos and Sakkara. 

To this period belongs the tradition concerning 
the beautiful, flaxen-haired queen, Nitocris, the 
noblest and handsomest woman of her time, and 
the builder of the third pyramid. It is related of 
her, that in order to revenge the death of her 



60 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. 

brother (who had been killed by his political 
enemies, who gave the kingdom to her), she con- 
structed a vast, underground hall, and when she 
had invited the murderers to a feast there, the 
waters of the Nile were poured in through a canal 




WOMEN WEAVING AND USING THE SPINDLES. 



and all were drowned. Then Nitocris took her own 
life in order to avoid the vengeance which was 
sure to fall upon her. The inscriptions make the 
third pyramid belong to the reign of Menkara, the 
pious, who lived ten centuries earlier than this fab- 
ulous queen. However, Perring affirms that this 



Ophir and Punt. 61 

pyramid has been reconstructed, and some Egyp- 
tologists, Bunsen and Lepsius being of the number, 
believe that Nitocris enlarged it, and covered it 
with the rich polished granite which made its claim 
to special notice. 

The next king after Nofer-ka-ra, of whom the 
monuments tell anything of interest, was Xeb- 
kher-ra Mentu-hotep, called also Ra-neb-taui. He 
belonged to a race of kings who had fixed their cap- 
ital upon the spot where the magnificent city of 
Thebes was built later. The simple brick pyra- 
mids of these sovereigns were at the foot of the 
western mountain of the Necropolis of Thebes, 
where some of their coffins have been found. 

Near Philae, on the island of Konosso, there is a 
bas-relief of this Ra-neb-taui, who is called the de- 
voted servant of the celebrated Khem, the god of 
Coptos, and is credited with the conquests of thir- 
teen foreign nations. 

The last king of the eleventh dynasty was Sankh- 
ka-ra, and much interest is attached to the fact that 
under him the first journey was made to Ophir 
and Punt, This Punt, supposed to be the modern 
Somali, on the east coast of Africa, was, according 
to tradition, the original home of the gods, and 



62 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. 

thence had come forth a procession of sacred beings 
led by Anion, Horus and Hathor. 

This marvellous land of Punt was rich in precious 
stones and metals, rare woods, incense, and bal- 
sam — birds with strange plumage, and animals, 




Khem. 



Resbpu. 



such as camelopards, panthers, apes and long- 
tailed monkeys. 

Punt was the home of the god Bes, a powerful 
deity, who later gained dominion in Arabia and 



The God Bes. 63 

other parts of Asia, and even in the islands of Greece. 

This god is represented as a short, deformed man 
with apish countenance, almost concealed by a lion's 
skin which gives him a Gorgon-like appearance. 
He has a curly heard, a head-dress of long feathers 
and a tail like an animal. Wilkinson believed 
that he represented Death, in a bad sense. Birch 
judges from his various representations that he 
had bad attributes, but Brugsch-Bey so far differs 
from this opinion that he calls him " no other than 
the beneficent Dionysos, who, as a pilgrim through 
the world, dispensed with hand rich in blessings, 
mild manners, peace and jollity to the nations." 

It is well known that a road led from Coptos 
across the desert, to the coast of the Red Sea, and 
that from a land washed by the waters of the Ara- 
bian Gulf, precious treasures were received. The 
perilous voyages in frail barks, and the weary 
journey over parched sands, " where no water was," 
have furnished themes for prose and verse, and an 
attractive fascination lingers about those treasure- 
laden caravans, in spite of the painfulness of their 
waj r , and the hazards which thej^ braved for the 
sake of the riches from the land of Punt. 

Hannu was the noble sent by Sankh-ka-ra, on 
the first journey of this sort of which we have any 



64 From the Sixth to thv Thirteenth Dynasty. 



record. The account of it is given in his own 
words, and ends thus : — " Never was there a like 
thing done since there were kings ; never was any- 
thing like this done by any royal relation sent to 
these places since the time of the reign of the 
Sun-god, Ra. I acted thus for the king on account 
of the great friendship he has for me." 

The same desert-path followed by this meraor- 




Bes holding nosegays. 



Path to the Red Sea. 65 

able expedition, was used by all merchant caravans 
down to the time of the Ptolemies and the Romans. 

It is not possible to say when the products of 
India were first brought to Egypt, but the tombs 
of Thebes give full assurance of the truth that 
some intercourse, either direct or through the me- 
dium of Arabia, existed between Egypt and India. 

It is known that Solomon brought vast treasures 
from India, (2 Chron. viii. : 18, and 1 Kings ix. : 
26-28 ) but this journey was made by Hannu at 
least fifteen hundred years before the reign of Sol- 
omon. 

The twelfth dynasty, now to be considered, was 
characterized by the greatness of its kings, which 
was displayed in the wisdom of their home rule, 
and by their extensive conquests of foreign coun- 
tries. The monuments and papjai give a compar- 
atively full and clear account of this period, B. c. 
2466 to 2266, and the beauty of the buildings and 
statues belonging to it show that Art received that 
intelligent patronage which insures its % advance. 

However, the first of these Theban kings, Amen- 
emhat I., had much trouble in fixing himself se- 
curely upon the throne. He wrote a letter of in- 
structions for his son and successor, Usurtasen I., 
in which he recounts the conspiracies which sur- 



66 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. 

rounded him ; these were carried so far that those 
who sought his life even entered his bed-chamber 
at night. 

The conquests of Amenemhat I. are attested by 




GREAT HAl/L AT KAKNAK. 



various hieroglyphic inscriptions, all bearing wit- 
ness to his success as a warrior. He was also 
zealous for the honor and worship of the gods, and 



Amenemhat I, 67 

founded the temple of Anion at Thebes, besides 
doing many works for the benefit of Memphis and 
cities of his kingdom. 

An account also remains of the pyramid which 
he built, and the sarcophagus which he provided 
for himself. This last was made of a stone cut in 
the mountain of Rohannu, in the Wady Hamraa- 
mat, which was so large that " never the like had 
been provided since the time of the god Ra." 

During the last ten years of the life of Amenem- 
hat L, his son, Usurtasen I., was associated with 
the old king in the government, and during the 
reign of the son, the kingdom regained its tradi- 
tional order. 

The works of Usurtasen L, which now exist, prove 
him to have been a mighty ruler. He secured the 
support of the priests by his zeal in paying honor 
to the gods, especially in erecting temples for them. 

A very important one was that of Heliopolis or 
On, the city of the worship of the Sun-god, Atum, 
or Turn, and his wife Hathor-Jusas. This god was 
a local form of the great god Ra. 

At Berlin there is a parchment which was brought 
from Thebes by M. Brugsch-Bey in 1858, which 
gives an account of the convocation of the officials 
of his court by Usurtasen, in the third year of his 



68 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. • 

reign, for the purpose of a solemn consultation 
concerning the erection of a temple to the honor 
of the Sun-god. The king first addressed the 
assembly and expressed his wish to do this great 
work ; he received the approbation and encourage- 
ment of his advisers, and immediately proceeded 
to appoint an overseer of the projected buildings, 
and to superintend in person the ceremonial of lav- 
ing the foundations. 

The inscriptions upon the Egyptian monuments 




wmmmwmwMM 



which set forth the praises of the kings, seem, in 
the present time, to be childish, unimportant and 
flattering to fulsomeness. The great obelisk of 
Usurtasen I., which stood in the grand entrance to 
the temple of the sun at On, bore the following 
words, four times repeated : — 



Usurtasen L 69 

"The Hor of the Sun. 

The life for those who are born. 

The king of the upper and lower land. 

Cheper-ka-ra. * 

the lord of the double crown, 

the life for those who are born, 

the son of the Sun-god Ra, 

Usurtasen, 

the friend of the spirits of On, 

ever living 

the golden Hor 

the life for those who are born 

the good God 

Cheper-ka-ra, 

has executed this work 

in the beginning of the thirty years circle 

he the dispenser of life for evermore." 

These inscriptions are cut artistically in the red 
granite, and beside them no other information is 
given except the date of the erection of the monu- 
ments. Other obelisks in various localities bore 
the same praises of this king, who not only contin- 
ued the work of his father upon the temple of 
Apetu, generally called that of Karnak, but he ex- 
ceeded his predecessors by establishing a particular 
dwelling place for the so-called " seer of Anion," 
or the principal holy servant of that god. 

The inscriptions in one of the tombs at Beni- 
Hassan praise Usurtasen as a warrior. These 

* Cheper-ka-ra was one of the names given this king. 



70 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. 

grotto tombs are hewn from the solid rock and are 
situated about a mile from the Nile, opening 
towards the West. The sculptures and paintings 




CANAAN1TISH IMMIGRATION INTO EGYPT. 
(From tht tombs o/ Bint Hassan.) 



here are remarkable and portray in a striking man- 
ner the occupations and amusements of the people, 
as well as their punishments, the collection of the 
revenues, and many other things. 

From these tombs we learn that the manufact- 
ures of glass and linen, cabinet work, gold orna- 
ments and other artistic objects were practised by 
the Egyptians of that day. Games now in use are 
there represented, such as ball, mora and draughts, 
and the animals, birds, and fishes of Egypt are all 
reproduced in pictures. 

The grand and chaste architecture of these 
tombs is very noticeable, and the columns are 



Ameni. 71 

especially to be praised. It seems that the Doric 
column must have been of Egyptian origin, and 
the pictures at Beni-Hassan, of buildings with 
arches, show that the arch is of very ancient date, 
for, although these decorative works were undoubt- 
edly executed at different periods, yet the latest of 
them are very old. 

The history of Ameni, an important official 
under Usurtasen I., is recorded upon two columns 
at the entrance of one of these tombs. After the 
manner of the ancients, he is represented as speak- 
ing to whoever reads the record ; he goes on to re- 
count his labors, which included a part in all war- 
like expeditions ; the safe conduct to the king of all 
the booty ; the superintendence of all the works 
for the palace of the king and other important ser- 
vices. Finally, he takes to himself the praise of 
having averted a famine, by his wise foresight in 
commanding the ploughing and planting of all 
available lands, and by his own provision of food 
for the poor. 

The account of this great man is long, and con- 
tinually interrupted by ascriptions to the king. 

The chief information given in the story of 
Ameni is that which concerns the conquests in the 
land of Kush, which was to the south, and prob- 



72 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty, 

ably extended to Wady Haifa, where an ancient 
column of victory was erected. 

Usurtasen I. was also energetic in profiting by 
the resources of his empire. In the caves and 
mountains of Sinai his colonists delved for tur- 
quoise and copper ; in Nubia they sought for gold ; 
he erected buildings in Tanis and at Abyclos, and, 
in short, made his reign a proud period in Egyptian 
history, which still stands out in bright relief from 
the darkness and uncertainty which half conceals 




BLACK SLAVES WITH THEIR FAMILIES. 



many of his predecessors on the throne of the 
Pharaohs. 

The successor of Usurtasen I. was Amenemhat 
II., and all that is told of him in hieroglyphics may 
be summed up by saying, that he well protected 
the interests of his kingdom, and fortified and 
strengthened the borders of the newly acquired 



Tomb at Beni-Hassan. 75 

territories. He carried on with energy the search 
for gold in Nubia, and restored many monuments 
which had been destroyed in the struggles for the 
establishment of this dynasty. 

When Amenemhat II. had reigned twenty-nine 
years, he associated with himself his son, known 
as Usurtasen II., to whom the kingdom was left six 
years later, when the old king died. 

The records concerning the reign of Usurtasen II. 
are disjointed scraps that only serve to show that 
the country was in a most prosperous condition, 
and all other inscriptions are unimportant when 
compared with that in the tomb of Khnumhotep 
at Beni-Hassan. 

This tomb is of almost unequalled interest from 
its rich paintings, which not only show the manners 
and customs of ancient Egypt, as has before been 
mentioned in connection with all the rock-hewn 
tombs of this locality, but in this especial tomb, a 
historical representation enhances its value. It 
exhibits a Semitic family, consisting of thirty-seven 
members, who, in the reign of Usurtasen II., came 
into Egypt, and are shown as they presented them- 
selves before the governor, Khnumhotep, to beg 
for a friendly reception in their adopted country. 
The strangers offer gifts ; the whole train of loaded 



76 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. 

asses is seen, a few men making music, and doubt- 
less singing praises of the king ; and the texts 
explain that a part of their offerings consisted of 
the much valued paint of Midian, which was used 
for coloring the eyebrows and eyelids. This sub- 
stance formed an important article in the traffic 
between the Shasu (or Arabs) and the Egyptians. 

Upon the border of the hall of sacrifice of this 
magnificent tomb, there is a long inscription, in 
which Khnumhotep recounts many interesting facts 
concerning himself and the times through which he 
lived. From this it appears that beautiful towns 
then stood where now such desolation reigns ; 
canals then gave a generous suppty of water, which 
is now so scantily furnished by the shadoof ; splen- 
did temples, magnificent tombs and monuments 
were surrounded by a rich and industrious people, 
devoutly religious and proud of their flourish- 
ing grandeur. 

Another text here gives a series of feasts, which 
shows by its arrangements of months and days that 
the Egyptians, 4380 years ago, had a knowledge of 
four different forms of years ; what their calendri- 
cal relations were has not yet been explained. 

The next sovereign was the famous King Usur- 
tasen III. Under his reign all the conquests of 



Usurtasen III. 79 

his predecessors were confirmed, and his boundary 
lines were carried as far south as the second cat- 
aract of the Nile, close below which he built 
fortresses, which commanded the country on both 
sides of the river. He also set up large boundary 
stones, as a reminder to the people he had con- 
quered of his power and of the penalties they 
would incur if disobedient to him. One of these 
texts reads thus : " This is the frontier of the 
South, which was fixed in the year 8, in the reign 
of his majesty, King Usurtasen III., who gives life 
eternally. Let it not be permitted to any negro 
to cross it on his journey, except barks loaded with 
all kinds of cattle, oxen, goats, and asses belonging 
to the negroes, and except the negro who comes 
to barter in the land of Aken. To these, on the 
contrary, everything good shall be given. But 
otherwise let it not be permitted to a vessel belong- 
ing to negroes to enter on its road the country of 
Heh." 

The wars of Usurtasen III. were cruel to the 
last degree ; the women of the conquered tribes 
were enslaved, the crops burned, the cattle driven 
off, and the men killed. This stor)^ is confirmed 
by the pictures on the columns of victory of the 
sixteenth year of the reign of this king. 



&0 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty. 

His successes so commended Usurtasen III. to 
the hearts of his countrymen, that he was hon- 
ored with divine worship ; sacrifices were offered 
to him and temples dedicated to his name and 
memory. Even Thutmes III., who is famed as the 
true Alexander of Egyptian history, fifteen centu- 
ries later than the time of Usurtasen III., dedicated 
a temple and standing altars to the memory of this 
warrior-king, and thus, as the text says, " caused 
to live again, monumentally, the memory of his 
glorious ancestor/' 

Amenemhat III., the succeeding king, rested his 
claim to the remembrance and gratitude of poster- 
\tj upon another order of achievements. He it 
was who made that Lake Moeris, the benefits of 
which have furnished an inexhaustible theme for 
the ancient writers. During this reign so much 
attention was paid to the rise and fall of the Nile, 
and to its regulation, that now, after 4300 years 
have passed, we know what was the average 
height of the water, and what its greatest rise. 

The enormous work of digging Lake Moeris is 
fully shown by a papyrus now in the Museum at 
Boulak, which gives a plan of the basin and its 
canal. This document gives much information 
and is of inestimable value. 




EGYPTIAN CAR AND IIQPSFS. 



The Grreat Labyrinth. 



83 



Other works attributed to Amenemhat III. are, 
the building of a fine pyramid, a wonderful laby- 
rinth, and other astonishing labors of which the 
" speaking stones " say nothing, probably because 




HARPER IN TOMU AT THEBES. 



all these vast improvements were made in a prov- 
ince where the god Sebek was worshipped. The 
crocodile was sacred to this god, who was an 
abomination to the worshippers of Osiris, because 



84 From the Sixth to the Thirteenth Dynasty, 

he was a form of Set, or the Satan of Egyptian 
Mythology. Herodotus says in his account of the 
above-mentioned labyrinth, that it contained 
twelve covered courts, and three thousand halls 
and chambers, of which half were above, and half 
below, the surface of the soil in which it was 
built. Pliny says that some of the courts were 
made of Parian marble, and the columns of the 
red Syenite granite. 

Some blocks of stone remain which furnish, by 
the remnants of their inscriptions, the only known 
relics of this great structure. 

The last sovereigns of the twelfth dynasty were 
Amenemhat IV. and his sister, Queen Sebek- 
nofrura, of whom the inscriptions say almost 
nothing. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE TIME OF THE HYKSOS KINGS AND A PORTION 
OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. 




D' 



k URING the five 
centuries which suc- 
ceeded the twelfth dy- 
nasty, the history of 
Egypt is shrouded in 
doubt and darkness. No 
perfect list of the rulers 
of that period is known 
to exist, and but few 
and scattering refer- 
ences are found in the 
hieroglyphic writings, to 
aid in clearing away the 

mists of the ages which have settled heavily down 

upon this epoch. 

There are good reasons for believing that during 

85 



BUST OK CHEPHREN IN THE 
MUSEUM AT DOOLAC. 



86 Time of the Hyksos Kings. 

the thirteenth dynasty, civil dissensions arose in 
Egypt, and weakened that strong power which its 
previous unity had built up. At length the coun- 
try became the prey of foreigners, and the sov- 
ereigns are known as the Hyksos or Shepherd 
Kings. 

The theories and speculations concerning these 
strange rulers over Egypt are of great interest, 
but the size of this volume forbids an enumeration 
of them, and, were it not that the time of Joseph 
is believed to have been that of the close of this 
doubtful period, the Hyksos kings would be passed 
over here with a mere mention. Their monuments 
are found at Tanis, the Zoan of Scripture, and the 
pictures there represent them as of an Asiatic type, 
differing essentially from the Egyptians in features 
and characteristics. 

It is certain that from the end of the twelfth 
dynasty the worship of Sebek or Set increased 
until he became the chief god of that time. To his 
other names that of Nub, or "the golden," was 
added, and his temples were at Zoan and Avaris, 
where were also many other monuments in his 
honor, especially Sphinxes made from the Syenite 
granite. The god Set is called the Son of the 
goddess Nut (Iihea). 



The aod Set. 89 

As lias been mentioned, he was thought to be 
the origin of all evil, both in the seen and unseen 
worlds. His name and likeness are found upon 
monuments as early as in the sixth dynasty, and 
his legend says that after the death of Osiris, Set 
and Horus (Apollo) were engaged in a contest 
which endured for three days and three nights, 
when these gods changed themselves into animals, 
probably lions. Set was overpowered, and all his 
companions were changed into beasts. Horus 
stabbed Set in the heart, and tore away a part of 
his organs. Set injured the eye of Horus. 

One of the names of this god, given him by the 
Hyksos, was Sutekh or Sut. After his worship 
was once established he was the type of Northern, 
as Horus was that of Southern Egypt. The name 
Set may be translated by " limestone " and " fire.'* 
He is represented as a man, a lion, a hippopotamus, 
a boar and a serpent, all of which forms he is said 
to have assumed during the war of the gods. 
When represented as a man he frequently has 
the head of a crocodile, that animal being sacred 
to him, and worshipped with special honors at 
Coptos, Ombos, and Athribis or Crocodilopolis in 
the Theba'id. In other parts of Egypt, as has 
been said, the crocodile was nbhorred, and on a 






90 Time of the Hyksos Kings. 

particular day, a solemn hunt of them took place ; 
large numbers of them were thus killed, and were 
presented as sacrifices to the gods. 

Opposite Manfalout, innumerable mummied 
crocodiles are found in mummy pits, which proves 
that another Crocodilopolis existed near that spot. 
JElian relates that where they were worshipped, 
their numbers so increased that great danger 
attended those who walked near the river, or 
attempted to bathe, or to draw water for any 
purpose. M. Brugsch-Bey has made the following 
formula of what he considers the present result of 
the search for facts concerning the Hyksos : 

" 1. A certain number of non-Egyptian kings of 
foreign origin, belonging to the nation of the 
Menti, ruled for a long time in the eastern portion 
of the Delta. 

" 2. The foreign princes had, besides the town 
Zoan, chosen as the capital of their power the 
typhonic place Hauar-Auaris, on the east side of 
the Plusiac arm of the Nile, within what was 
called later the Sethroite nome, and had provided 
it with strong fortifications. 

" 3. The foreigners had, besides the customs and 
manners, adopted the official language and the 
holy writing of the Egyptians. The whole arrange- 



The Foreign Kings, 93 

ment of their court was formed on the Egyptian 
model. 

64 4. These same foreign kings were patrons of 
art. Egyptian artists made, according to the old 
pattern and according to the prescribed usage of 
their forefathers, the monuments in honor of the 
foreign tyrants ; yet, in the statues of them, they 
were obliged to give way with regard to the expres- 
sion of the foreign countenances, the peculiar 
arrangement of the beard, and the head-dress and 
other deviations of foreign costume. 

" 5. These foreign kings honored, as the supreme 
god of their newly-acquired country, the son of 
the heavenly goddess Nut, the god Set or Sutekh, 
with the additional name Nub, "gold," or "the 
golden," according to the Egyptian mode of viewing 
things, the origin of all that is bad and perverse 
in the seen and unseen world; the opponent of 
what is good, and the enemy of light. In the 
towns of Zoan and Auaris the foreigners had con- 
structed to the honor of this god splendid temples 
and other monuments, especially Sphinxes, con- 
structed of stone from Syene. 

" 6. In all probability one of the foreign lords 
was the originator of the new era, which most like- 
ly began with the first year of his reign. Up to 



94 Time of the Hyksos Kings. 

the reign of the second Ramses, four hundred full 
years had elapsed of this reckoning, which was 
acknowledged by the Egyptians. 

" 7. The Egyptians were indebted to the stay 
of the foreigners, and to their social intercourse 
with them, for much useful knowledge. Especially 
the horizon of their artistic views was enlarged, 
and new forms and shapes were introduced into 
Egyptian art, the Semitic origin of which is obvious 
from a single glance at their productions. The 
winged Sphinx may be reckoned as a notable 
example of this new direction of art introduced 
from abroad." 

One important and primal reason to be given 
in explanation of the paucity of the inscriptions 
concerning the Hyksos, is found in the fact that 
the native kings, who followed these foreigners, 
carefully endeavored to obliterate all traces of the 
hated interlopers, and destroyed the monuments 
they had erected, or so defaced the inscriptions 
upon them that they are almost indistinguishable. 

Many accumulated reasons might be given for 
believing that Joseph lived during the last years 
of the reign of the Hyksos, but want of space 
allows but two of the most important ones to be 



Time of Joseph. 95 

noted here. First, by assuming that this was the 
time of Joseph, the elates which are now generally 
accepted as those of the emigration of Jacob 
into Egypt, and of the Exodus of the children of 
Israel will be in accordance with the Scriptures as 
found in Exodus xii : 40, and Genesis xv : 13. 

Again, the inscriptions in the tomb of one Baba, 
at El-Kab, speak of a famine lasting many years, 
which is believed to be the same famine with that 
of Joseph's time. We again quote M. Brugsch- 
Bey : " The simple words of the Biblical account 
and the inscription in the tomb of Baba are too 
clear and convincing to leave any room for reproach 
on the ground of possible error. The account in 
Holy Scripture of the elevation of Joseph under 
one of the Hyksos kings, of his life at their court, 
of the reception of his father and brothers in Egypt, 
with all their belongings, is in complete accordance 
with the manners and customs, as also with the 
place and time.** 

There is an intense fascination in the study of 
the widely differing theories and speculations re- 
garding these five mystic centuries, but so much 
well-attested fact is now at command concerning 
Egyptian history, that mere surmises should have 
no place beside it. 



96 



Time of the Hyhsos Kings. 



As the time of the Hyksos passes away, the 
monuments again take up the broken thread of 
their story, and a clear light is thrown on the suc- 
ceeding reigns, commencing with that of Aahmes 
or Amosis, the first sovereign of the eighteenth 




dynasty, who came to the throne about B. C. 1700. 
This king was not a Theban ; his name signifies 
" Child of the Moon ; " that of his mother, Aahho- 
tep, " the moonhy," and that of their descendant 
Thut-mes, " the child of Thut." 

The god Thut or Thoth corresponded to the 
classic Hermes, and represented the moon as Ra 
did the sun ; he was lord of the arts, and of the 
sciences of writing, and was invoked by the 
scribes ; he presided over literature, and revealed 



The God Thoth. 97 

knowledge to men ; all inspired writings were attrib- 
uted to him and said to be written by his own hand. 

The ibis was sacred to Thoth, and he was repre- 
sented with the head of that bird, one fable relating 
that under the form of the ibis this god had es- 
caped the pursuit of Typho, or the evil one. Her- 
mopolis was the chief city where Thoth was 
worshipped. Aahmes came to the throne when 
Egypt was much divided by internal dissensions, 
and though his first act was, by a short and decisive 
struggle to overcome Avaris and drive the foreign- 
ers as far as Sheruban, a town of Canaan,* and to 
fortify his Eastern boundary against the return of 
his enemies in this direction, he was soon forced to 
turn his attention to the restoration of peace within 
his kingdom. 

During the occupation of the Hyksos many 
minor kingdoms had arisen ; that is to say, the 
descendants of the old rulers had established them- 
selves in certain towns, such as El-Kab, Thebes, 
Khmun or Hermopolis, and Khinensee or Herakle- 
opolis. With these petty rulers Aahmes made a 
treaty, which left them certain powers while they 
acknowledged him as their Pharaoh. 

By this treaty the king was able to unite the 

* Joshua xix. : 6. 



98 Time of the Hyksos Kings. 

forces of the whole country in the work of re-sub- 
duing the negroes, who, during the foreign domin- 
ion, had thrown off the Egyptian yoke, and returned 
to the independence which the kings of the twelfth 
dynasty had so arduously taken from them. After 
many struggles, Nubia was again reduced, and 
Aahmes was free to devote himself to the rebuild- 
ing of the temples, and other works which flourish 
only in times of peace. The inscriptions relate 
that " in the twenty-second year of the reign of 
King Aahmes, 'his Holiness' gave the order to 
open anew the rock-chambers, and there to cut out 
the best white stone of the hill country An, for 
the houses of the gods of endless years' duration, 
for the home of the divine Ptah in Memphis, for 
Anion, the gracious god in Thebes, and for all the 
other monuments winch his Holiness carried out. 
The stone was drawn by bullocks, which were 
brought and given over to the foreign people of 
the Fenekh." These words are found upon the 
rock-tablets of the quarries of Toora and Maassara, 
not far distant from Cairo. 

The architectural works undertaken by Aahmes 
were continued for many years by his successors. 
The texts show that the exact time occupied in the 
re-building of the magnificent temple of the Sun 



Queen Nofertari. 99 

at Edfou, was one hundred and eighty years, three 
months, and fourteen days. 

The queen of Aahmes was one of the most re- 
nowned of Egyptian queens. Her fame is perpet- 
uated upon many monuments. She is called 
Nofert-ari-Aahmes, "the beautiful companion of 
Aahmes," and "wife of the god Amon," which 
means the chief priestess of that god. When 
represented as the ancestress and founder of the 
eighteenth dynasty, she is called "the daughter, 
sister, wife and mother of a king." 

It appears that when Aahmes died his son and 
successor, Amenhotep I., or Amenophis, was so 
young that Queen Nofert-ari acted as regent until 
he was of proper age to assume his kingly duties. 
This sovereign was famous for his campaigns and 
his extension of his dominions on the southern and 
northern borders of his kingdom. 

In a tomb at El-Kab, where a soldier of Amen- 
hotep I. recounts his services under that king, the 
enmity of the Libyans, who became such formida- 
ble opponents of the Egyptians, is first mentioned. 

Amenhotep I. carried on the building of the 
great temple at Thebes, and did other works of a 
similar sort, and so endeared himself to his people 



100 Time of the Hyhsos Kings. 

that divine honors were decreed to him after his 
death. 

Thutmes or Thotmosis I. is also famed as a great 
warrior ; he even led his armies to the banks of the 
Euphrates, and although in later times the people 
of these lands endeavored to obliterate all traces 
of the Egyptian conquerors, the name of Thutmes 
I. still stands upon the inscribed stones near the 
falls of Kerman, near Tombos, between the twen- 
tieth and nineteenth degrees of latitude, and in these 
inscriptions his praises as a conqueror are spoken. 
These speaking tablets attribute to this king the 
opening of lands " which had remained unknown 
to his forefathers, and which had never beheld the 
wearer of the double crown ; " and at last it is 
declared that " the land, in its complete extent, lay 
at the feet of the king." 

It is plain that the importance of these conquests 
could scarcely be exaggerated. From the south 
must come to Egypt the ivory, ebony, gold, gems, 
balsam, resin, rare animals and skins, which so 
enhanced the luxury of the court of the Pharaohs. 
From the south came also those slaves, who, as 
prisoners, in the gold-bearing valleys of Wawa, 
with untold pains, washed out the precious metal, 




GROTTOES OF S1L.SXLIS. 



The Quarries of Silsilis. 103 

and endured their heavy toils under the relentless 
rule of Egyptian overseers and soldiers. 

The traveller in the Egypt of to-day must invoke 
the aid of the spirit of the imagination, and under 
the spell of his wand must let the grand old 
temples stand boldly forth, surrounded by their 
luxuriant, waving palm-groves, through which 
avenues of sphinxes stretch far away, — let flour- 
ishing towns and villages crowd the valley, — let 
the royal Nile-ship with its sails of costly byssus 
pass onward over the majestic, sacred river, - — let 
pyramids, obelisks, statues and splendid tombs 
stand forth near and far, — then only can he un- 
derstand, in part, why the dusky people sang such 
hymns as that one reads to-day in the grotto of 
Silsilis : 

" Hail to thee ! king of Egypt ! 

Sun of the foreign peoples ! 

Thy name is great 

In the land of Kush, 

Where thy war-cry resounded thro' 

The dwellings of men. 

Great is thy power 

Thou beneficent ruler. , 

It puts to shame the peoples, 

The Pharaoh ! Life, Salvation, health to him ! 

He is a shining sun." 

Silsilis is a very interesting spot. There much of 
the stone was cut for the building of Thebes. 



104 Time of the Hyksos Kings. 

" The hundred gated queen 
Though fallen, grand ; though desolate, serene ; 
The blood with awe runs coldly through our veins, 
As we approach her far-spread, vast remains. 
Forests of pillars crown old Nilus' side, 
Obelisks to heaven high lift their sculptured pride ; 
Rows of dark sphinxes, sweeping far away, 
Lead to proud fanes, and tombs august as they. 
Colossal chiefs in granite sit around, 
As wrapped in thought, or sunk in grief profound. 
Titans or gods sure built these walls that stand 
Defying years, and Ruin's wasting hand. 
So vast, sublime the view, we almost deem, 
We rove, spell-bound, through some fantastic dream, 
Sweep through the halls that Typhon rears below, 
And see, in yon dark Nile, hell's rivers flow. 
E'en as we walk these fanes and ruined ways, 
In musings lost, yet dazzled while we gaze, 
The mighty Columns ranged in long array, 
The Statues fresh as chiselled yesterday, 
We scarce can think two thousand years have flown 
Since in proud Thebes a Pharaoh's grandeur shone, 
But in yon marble court or sphinx-lined street, 
Some moving pageant half expect to meet, 
See great Sesostris, come from distant war, 
Kings linked in chains to drag his ivory car ; 
Or view that bright procession sweeping on 
To meet at Memphis far-famed Solomon, 
When, borne by Love, he crossed the Syrian wild, 
To wed the royal Pharaoh's blooming child." 



The excavations at Silsilis are described by Eliot 
Warburton thus : " Hollowed out of the rocks are 
squares as large as that of St. James, streets as 
large as Pall Mall, and lanes and alleys without 



Thutmes I. 105 

number ; in short, you have all the negative feat- 
ures of a town, if I may so speak, L e., if a town be 
considered as a cameo, these quarries are a vast 
intaglio" 

But if the days of toil were many for the Egyp- 
tian people, there were also days of feasts, when 
the masses were intoxicated by pageants — when 
the king scattered gifts, and dazzled by his splendor, 
the people applauded him and w^ere proud of the 
spectacle, seemingly forgetful that their slavish 
lives and labors produced the wealth which was 
thus displayed before them. 

The people of Western Asia, lying on the east 
of Egypt, were the ancient, hereditary and hated 
enemies of the Egyptians, and after Thutmes I. 
had carried out his plans in the south and made 
his power felt in Nubia and Kush, he made prepa- 
rations for that war upon Asia which endured more 
than five centuries, under successive kings, and 
was, with few exceptions, fortunate for the 
Egyptians. 

The countries against which this great struggle 
was carried on are known in the Bible and in the 
classics as Palestine, Ccele-Sj^ria and Syria ; these 
being again divided into small kingdoms, each of 
which are usually called by the name of some forti- 



106 



Time of the Hyksos Kings. 



fied or capital city. In the inscriptions all these 
lands are known under the one name of Ruthen- 




A WAR CHARluT. 



hir, which may be translated as Upper Ruthen or 
Luthen. 

The texts frequently mention the land of Naha- 
rina or Naharain, and this is given as the bound to 
which Thutmes I. directed his efforts during his 



Thutmes L 107 

campaigns. There is little doubt that this was 
one with the " double-stream land,' 5 and was used 
for Mesopotamia, which lay between the Tigris 
and the Euphrates. 

The inscriptions at El-Kab declare that Thutmes 
I. undertook this war ki to wash his heart," that is, 
to be avenged for former injuries inflicted by the 
people of Naharain. He was victorious and took 
much booty, one important part of which was 
chariots and horses, which take their place in the 
battles of the Egyptians from this time. Many 
prisoners were also taken, and it may fairly be in- 
ferred that these men carried on in Egypt the arts 
of their own country which were hitherto unknown 
to the Egyptians, and thus the arts and trades of 
several nations were united. Again, this war in- 
augurated the system of commercial interchange 
among nations, which has proved of inestimable 
value to the whole world. " Trade and art went 
hand in hand. The descriptions of the chariots of 
war, which blazed with gold and silver, of weapons, 
from beautiful coats of mail to richly covered 
lances, of gold, silver, and brazen vases, of house- 
hold furniture down to tent-poles and foot-stools, 
and of a thousand small objects, which appear as 
necessities to civilized men, allow us to cast a deep 



108 Time of the Hyksos Kings. 

glance into the complete artistic skilfulness and 
into the direction of the taste of these early ages 
of history, and must ensure our deepest respect 
and admiration for the performances of the children 
of earth at that day." After the victorious return 
of the king, he erected at Thebes a tablet of 
victory, by the side of which Thutmes III., in his 
time, placed a second column. As an expression 
to the gods of his gratitude for their blessing upon 
his undertakings, Thutmes I. carried on with vigor 
the buildings at Thebes, and two granite obelisks 
before the western front of the temple of Karnak 
tell in their inscriptions of the piety and the power 
of this first king, who was called " Thut's child," 
to whom divine honors were paid after his death. 

His successor, Thutmes II., ruled but a short 
time, and his reign was much disturbed by the 
jealousy of his sister, Hashop, who had been the 
favorite child of their father, and was allowed, be- 
fore his death, to have some share in the govern- 
ment. The texts tell very little of Thutmes II. 
beyond the fact that he carried on two successful 
campaigns, and that with Queen Hashop he was 
much occupied in building at Thebes and at Medi- 
net-Abu, and in the construction of the Tombs of 

the Kings. 



Queen Hashop. 



109 



After the death of Thutmes II. Hashop threw 
off her womanly attire, and clothing herself as a 
Pharaoh, she assumed the crown and all the royal 
insignia. Her brother, Thutmes IIL, was still so 
young that she was virtually sole monarch of 







ANCIENT EGYPTIAN COAT OF MAII,. 

Egypt. While she showed veneration for her 
father's name and memory, she used every power 
at her command to blot out the remembrance of 
her elder brother, and erased his name from many 
monuments. 

Egyptian art reached a high point under Hashop, 
and the ruins of her works have a peculiar charm 
which bears witness to the excellence of her archi- 
tect, Semnut. But the texts declare that she 



110 Time of the Hyksos Kinc/$> 

sought " to be a source of wonder to men, and a 
secret to the gods alone." As one means to this 
end she determined upon a voyage to the land 
of Punt, which, washed by the Indian Ocean, was 
the land of incense, ivory, and many precious 
things. 

An entire history of this expedition, made in 
pictures and explained by texts, was put upon the 
eastern wall of the Stage Temple erected by this 
queen. Hashop was incited to this strange voy- 
age by the oracle of Anion. Extensive prepara- 
tions were made in the provision of ships, sailors, 
soldiers, ambassadors, and men of high degree, 
who attended on this august lady. Presents for 
the strangers she would visit were not forgotten, 
and all being ready, a prosperous voyage was 
made to the land of Punt, where the Egyptians 
disembarked, greatly to the surprise of the inhab- 
itants of the country. 

The pictures before mentioned represent the 
manners and customs which the Egyptians saw 
for the first time and the texts make many obser- 
vations upon them ; the amicable ceremonies, the 
exchange of gifts and the relations established, by 
which Hashop was accepted as the queen of this 



Queen ffashop. Ill 

new land, are all clearly set forth, as well as the 
preparations for the return to Thebes. 

Among the gifts which the queen brought home 
there were thirty-one incense trees, all packed in 
tubs and prepared for planting in Egyptian soil. 
May this not be considered the earliest essay in 
the culture of foreign plants? 

The pictures forcibly portray the great labor of 
embarking all the treasures acquired by the queen, 
and the texts add that, " Laden was the cargo to 
the uttermost with all the wonderful products of 
the land of Punt, and with the different nut-woods 
of the divine land, and with heaps of the resin of 
incense, with fresh incense trees, with ebony, ob- 
jects in iyotj inlaid with much gold from the 
land of the Amoo, with sweet woods, Khesit-wood, 
with Ahem-incense, with holy resin, and paint 
for the eyes, with dog-headed apes, with long- 
tailed monkeys and grey-hounds, with leopard 
skins, and with natives of the country, together 
with their children. Never was the like brought 
to any queen (of Egypt) since the world stands." 
After the return to Thebes, all these riches were 
dedicated to the god Amon and grand festivals were 
instituted, at which the queen, the foreign princes 
whom she had brought with her, and the whole 



112 



Time of the Hyhsos Kings, 



Court appeared. The treasures were all weighed 
out by Hor, and a record made of them by Thut. 
Soon after this, Hashop ordered another great 
ceremony to be observed, and on this occasion she 
dedicated the splendid Stage Temple, (that is 
built in stages connected with each other by flights 
of steps), at Der-el-bahri, to Anion and Hathor. 






W pHIHM 




GOLDEN EWERS AND BASINS IN THE TOMB OF RAMESEi III. 

This festival was attended by numerous nobles 
and warriors who thronged to Thebes for this pur- 
pose, and everything conspired to make it a proud 
day for the vain queen, whose reign was peaceful 
and prosperous, undisturbed by dissensions or in- 
vasions. 



Thutmes III. 113 

During her entire reign Hashop had kept her 
younger brother, Thutmes III., quite out of sight. 
He was secluded in Buto without state or position, 
until having come to man's estate, he claimed his 
right to share the throne with his sister, whom he 
had hated for the part she had played towards him. 
His claim could not be set aside, and Thutmes III. 
was acknowledged king. From this time the texto 
are silent concerning Hashop. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE REIGN OF THUTMES III., AND THE REMAIN- 
DER OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY, 
B. C, (ABOUT) 1600 TO 1400. 



THE story of Thutmes III. or 
Men-kheper-ra, apparently 
cannot be told without exaggera- 
ted praise. As a warrior he was 
a marvel, and is well named the 
Alexander the Great of Egypt. 
He also did many wonderful 
works from which he gained ar- 
tistic glory ; he founded temples, 
and so increased the splendor 
and estimation of the service of 
the gods, that we scarcely wonder 
that he received divine honors 
while still alive, or that his name 
is seen at this clay more frequent- 
ly in Egypt than that of any 
other king. 
He stood before his people as the personifi- 

114 




BOX IN BERLIN 
MUSEUM. 



Thutmes IlL 115 

cation of prosperity and good fortune, and his 
name was inscribed upon numberless small images, 
scarabei and amulets of all kinds, which .were 
undoubtedly used as charms against the power of 
evil spirits and magicians. 

If it be true that " the evil that men do lives 
after them," and that " the good is oft interred with 
their bones," then must this great king have 
been a perfect man. The sages of his nation and 
his time taught that the real life of a man is the 
remembrance of him when dead, and the charac- 
ter he bears with posterity ; Thutmes III. must 
continue to live so long as great actions shall be 
respected and Art shall find appreciation. 

The fourteen campaigns undertaken by this 
king within a space of twenty years gave him his 
first claim to reputation with the men of his own 
time. Under the reign of the vain Queen Hashop, 
the conquered peoples who paid tributes to Egypt 
had become restive, had left their dues unpaid, and 
some had even renounced their allegiance and 
declared themselves independent. About the same 
time the rule of the Arab kings in Babylon was 
established, and an entire change took place in the 
order of things from the river Euphrates to the 
Western Sea. Of all the peoples on that side who 



116 The Reign of Thutmes III 

had been conquered by Thutmes I. onl} r those of 
Gaza remained true to the Egyptians. Thutmes 
III. first turned his attention in this direction ; he 
stormed city after city ; crossed and re-crossed the 
rivers of hostile nations ; led his troops to almost 
unequalled toils, and when victorious, returned to 
Egypt only to repeat the same labors in the sub- 
jugation of the revolted tribes on the south and 
west. 

Full accounts of these wars were chiselled in 
beautiful characters into the walls surrounding the 
holy of holies in the temple of Anion, at Karnak. 
These inscriptions are now much injured ; parts of 
them are scattered in the museums of various 
countries, but enough remains and has been care- 
fully translated to afford a clear report of his 
campaigns, as well as of the booty captured, and 
the tributes paid later by the conquered peoples. 
These tributes included not only gold, silver, 
copper and precious stones, ivory, ebony, wheat 
and wine, etc., etc., but noble persons, and even 
kings' daughters, besides thousands of slaves or 
servants, which were sent into Egypt to appease 
the great coDqueror and ease a little the burdens 
he imposed. 

All the metals and other articles of tribute were 



Thutmes III. 117 

given over to the proper officials to be weighed, and 
estimated, and recorded in the books of accounts. 
The pictures which represent these weighers show 
that they used representations of animals in stone 
or metals, as weights are now emploj~ed. 

The son of Thutmes III., called Nahi, was gov- 
ernor of the southern country of Upper and Lower 
Nubia, and received for the king all the taxes and 
tributes of these districts. In an inscription in the 
rock-temple of Ellesich he thus speaks : " I am a dis- 
tinguished servant of my lord ; I fill his house with 
gold and make joyful the countenance of the king 
by the productions of the lands of the south." 

Before Thutmes considered the work of his 
campaigns completed he erected fortresses in order- 
to protect what he had so hardly won — notably,, 
that of Men-kheper-ra U'af-shema, which by 
translation reads, " Thutmes III., who has bound 
the land of the foreigners." This stronghold was, 
in Phoenicia, at the foot of Lebanon, near the 
cities of Aradus and Simyra. 

An idea of the extent of the conquests of this 
king may be formed from the fact that a single 
list gives the names of one hundred and nineteen 
towns which he conquered in the East, or Canaan; 
he sent living prisoners from all these places to 



118 



The Reign of Thutmes III. 



Thebes. The manner in which Thutmes III. 
carried on his wars was as follows : the towns he 
desired to have were summoned to surrender, and. 




ASSAULT OF A FORT. THE TESTUDO AND SCALING-LADDER. 



Celebration of Triumphs. 119 

in case they obeyed, the inhabitants were well 
treated and only a moderate war-tax was imposed ; 
but if a surrender was refused, an attack was made, 
and after conquest, heavy tributes were imposed. 
An obstinate resistance was punished by the de- 
struction of the town and the crops, while -all the 
treasures and many prisoners were borne away. 
It is difficult to appreciate, in this day, the effect 
which a triumphal return of the king had upon the 
old Egyptians. They were an excitable people, 
and gave themselves up to wild expressions of 
their emotions. The train of the conquering 
monarch was imposing to the last degree, embrac- 
ing as it did, captive princes with their families, 
troops of horses, oxen, goats and many strange 
animals ; splendid artistic works in ivory, gold, 
silver, and rare woods, and precious gems and 
many costly products of foreign skill and for- 
eign soil. All these spectacles fixed the love 
and admiration of the people upon their young 
sovereign, and made them ready to aid him in 
realizing his grand desires for beautifying and en- 
riching the cities of his own land. 

His first care was to appoint, and celebrate with 
unequalled pomp, the feasts of victory. These 
were three in number, and each endured five days. 



The Reign of Thatmes III 

Of the sacrifices offered, the god Amon received 
the largest and richest share, and Thebes was the 
city most favored by the king, but other gods and 
other towns were not forgotten, and all these offer- 
ings amounted to a marvellous value. 

It remains to consider this king as an architect 
or builder, and to review his mighty deeds in this 
wise, which are of more interest to the men of to- 
day than are the battles he fought. However 
could the temples have been built had the Avars 
not occurred ? for one of the great uses he made of 
his captives was to employ them as artisans and 
laborers, and thus add the glories of peace to his 
great fame. The following list gives the most im- 
portant of his architectural works : 

1. The Hall of the Pillars,* at Karnak, with the 
chambers and corridors belonging to it on the 
east, and the gigantic propyls on the south. 
In this Hall of Pillars was placed that inscription 
known as the Table of the Kings. He also erected 
four obelisks and many statues at Karnak. 

2. A Holy of Holies and a provision-house for 
the temple of Amon at Thebes. 

3. Many gates and new doors of acacia-wood 



* Square, not round as in the Hall of Columns of Kiug Seti I. 




PROPYLON AT KARNAK. 



Architectural Works. 123 

for the reconstruction of a temple at Thebes, 
which had fallen into ruin. No full account of 
this temple is now known to exist. Each one of 
its gates bore an inscribed name, such as, " Door 
of Thutmes III. ; he exalted the greatness of 
Amon ;" or, " Gate of Thutmes III. ; a great spirit 
is Amon." 

4. Three statues in memory of his immediate 
ancestors; these were before the southern wings 
of the temple, and ruins of them are now seen. 

5. An entirely new temple at Medinet-Abu. 

6. Temple of Semne. 

7. Temple of Kumne. 

8. Temples at Ambos, El-Kab and Hermonthis. 

9. Temple on Elephantine Island. 

10. Also works at Abydos, Tentyra and Mem- 
phis, the exact extent of which cannot be told. 

This list includes but a portion of his works, and 
it should be added that he richly endowed with 
splendid gifts the temples and the service of the 
gods in different parts of Egypt. 

Upon the remnants of all these magnificent 
works many most instructive and interesting 
pictures and texts have been found, and, under the 
untiring labors of learned men, have been made 
available, to the great increase of the knowledge 



124 The Reign of Thutmes HI. 

which formerly existed of these ancient times. 

Among these are representations of the plants 

and natural curiosities which the Egyptians had 




COLUMNS AND PART OF OBELISK AT KARNAK. 

found in the lands they had visited. Water-lilies, 
cacti, fruits and flowers, melons and pomegranates, 
birds and animals, are all represented. 

In one of the tombs of the hill Abd-el-qurnah 



Works of Captives. 



125 



are preserved a series of pictures which the in- 
scriptions beside them explain as representations of 
the captives whom Thutmes III. devoted to the 
building of the temple of Amon. 

One of the overseers (Rois) thus speaks, " The 
stick is in my hand, be not idle." 

Some of the workmen cany water in jugs ; some 



VMiil^f 




FOREIGN CAPTIVES MAKING BRICKS. 



knead and cut up the earth ; some shape the 
bricks with wooden forms, and lay them out to dry, 
while others are building the walls. The word- 
picture of Scripture * accords perfectly with the 
representations in this tomb. 

* Exodus i. : 11, 13, 14, and Exodus v. : 12. 



126 The Reign of Thutmes III 

The numerous inscriptions belonging to the 
reign of Thutmes III. are most interesting to stu- 
dents of history. They are poetic and full in 
style ; translations lose the delicate shades belong- 
ing to the original, but the following extract from 
an inscription on a granite tablet now in the 
Museum at Boulak, gives a good idea of the man- 
ner of the ancient writing : 

" 1. ; Come to me,' said Anion, ; and enjoj^ your- 
self, and admire my excellences. 

" ' Thou, my son, who honorest me, Thutmes 
the III., even living.' 

" ' I shine in the light of the morning sun through 
thy love.' 

" 2. And my heart is enraptured, if thou directest 
thy noble step to my Temple. 

" 11. I make thy victories to go on through all 
nations ; my royal serpent shines on thy forehead. 
And thy enemy is reduced to nothing as far as 
the horizon. 

" They come and bring the tribute on their shoul 
clers. 

" And bow themselves. 

" 12. Before thy Holiness, for such is my will, I 



Inscriptions on Tomb. 127 

make the rebellious ones fall clown exhausted near 
thee. 

" A burning fire in their hearts, and in their limbs 
a trembling," etc., etc. 

Upon a stone found at Abydos, the king him- 
self speaks. After recounting what he has done 
for the gods and their service, he continues thus : 

" (I call upon) you, the holy fathers of this 
house, 3'ou priests and singers, you assistants and 
artists, as you are there, expend the gifts of sacri- 
fice, with the tables of sacrifice (in your hand, lay) 
them down on the tables of the altars. Preserve well 
my memorial, honor my name, and remember 
my kingly dignity. Strengthen my name in the 
mouths of j^our servants, and let my remembrance 
remain preserved w^ith your children, because I, 
the king, am a benefactor to those who are on my 
side, a severe lord against those who only remem- 
ber my name in their speech. What I have done 
in this land, that remains in your knowledge. It 
does not appear a fable in your sight, and no man 
can dispute it. I have carved art-memorials to the 
gods, I have embellished their shrines that they 
may last to posterity, I have kept up their temples, 
I have taken care for that which was erected in 
former times. 



128 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

" I teach the priests what is their duty ; I turn 
away the ignorant man from his ignorance. I 
have done more service than all the other kings 
before me. The gods are full of delight at my 
time, and their temples celebrate feasts of joy. 
I have placed the boundaries of the land of Egypt 
at the horizon. I gave protection to those who 
were in trouble, and have punished the evil-doers. 
I placed Egypt at the head of all nations, because 
its inhabitants join with me in the worship of 
Anion." 

These quotations give a hint of the richness of 
the monuments of this time, 1600 to 1565 B.C., 
which serve to fulfil the prophecy of this king 
that his " remembrance shall live in all times and 
to eternity." Another important way in which 
these words of his have been realized, is in the re- 
moval of the obelisks which he built. They have 
been taken to Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome 
and London. 

Thutmes III. was succeeded by his son, Amen- 
hotep II. In speaking of him, Brugsch-Bey says, 
" It is difficult and dangerous to be the son of a 
great father, for the good remains the enemy of the 
better, his own deeds vanish before the glory 
of the "past, and the praise of men takes as the 



Amenhotep II. 131 

measure for the son the greatness of the father." 

An eloquent American orator has said that " if 
the son is not much better than the father he is 
much worse, since the example which has preceded 
him should incite to still greater virtue." 

But what could this son do to excel such a 
father ? 

Before the death of the old king, Amenhotep II. 
had shown himself to be a brave soldier, and had 
successfully conducted a campaign in the u red 
land," or the country between the Nile and the Red 
Sea. After the young king came to the throne 
he led his army against the eastern provinces, 
where, in Naharain, an insurrection had occurred 
and some of the subjugated towns had leagued 
together in order to throw off the Egyptian rule. 
The king put down the rebellion, and though he 
found no great booty in this field, which had already 
been stripped, he carried away seven kings, six 
of whom he hung on the walls of Thebes, and the 
seventh at Napata, in Nubia, as a warning to all 
his people of the fate which surely awaited those 
who attempted to free themselves from bondage. 

Napata was the central point for the govern- 
ment of Nubia, and there Amenhotep II. added to 
the temples ; he did other works at Amada and at 



132 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

Kumne, but the}^ were not remarkable for their 
beauty or for valuable inscriptions. 

The next king, Thutmes IV., did not immortal- 
ize himself by grand inscriptions, and they say 
little more of him than that he made wars in Naha- 
rain, Libya and Nubia. He appears to have espe- 
cially honored Hormaku ; he cleared the sand 
away from the great Sphinx, and placed a memo- 
rial-stone before the breast of that old wonder. 
There is a legend of his having been commanded 
to do this work in a vision, but the chief interest of 
the tale is the fact, that more than three thousand 
years ago, this grim old monument was already 
covered up as it was when Lepsius and the Due 
de Luynes, by dint of great labor and large expense, 
cleared away the desert sand and brought to 
the light of day the words of Thutmes IV. Again 
the ever moving sand has done its w^ork, and again 
the tablet is hidden away. 

The next king, Amenhotep III., was a glorious 
Pharaoh, of whom many stones recount brave 
deeds and devout acts. During his reign the 
broadest limits to which Egj^ptian rule had ever 
extended itself, were firmly maintained, and he 
even extended his kingdom on the south, or up the 
Nile, and "in the fifth year the king returned 



Inscriptions at Semne. 133 

home. He had triumphed in this year, in his first 
campaign, over the miserable land of Kusli. He 
placed his boundary wherever it pleased him. The 
king ordered that the remembrance of his victories 
should be preserved on this memorial stone. No 
other king has done the like, except him, the brave 
Pharaoh, who trusts in his strength, namely, 
Amenhotep III." 

All this is from the memorial stone on the road 
from Syene to the enchanting island, Philae. The 
names of six conquered nations follow, and on 
another stone at Semne, near the second cataract, 
there is the following catalogue of the prisoners 
whom the king captured in the land of Abeha : 
Living negroes . . 150 heads. 
Bovs 



Negresses 
Old negroes 
Their children 



110 

250 

55 

175 



Total of living hands . 740 
Number of hands (cut off) 312 



Total, with the living hands, 1052 

• The hands of the slain were carried home that 
all might see the number that were slaughtered 



134 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

A statue of this king, which is now at Paris, bears 
on its footstool the names of thirteen peoples 
whom he subdued, and a tablet in Nubia adds 
still twelve others. 

Under this king, Amenhotep III., the skilful 
architect, Amenhotep, -son of Hapoo and the lady 
Atoo, flourished. He was so energetic as a work- 
man and so faithful a servant, that to him the 
king erected a beautiful statue, much ornamented, 
and inscribed with high praises. This statue now 
enriches the Museum at Boulak. This great man 
is represented as himself speaking and enumerating 
the works which he had done. Among them all 
none are of greater interest now than the statues of 
Memnon, one of which was called the musical 
statue, and was said to hail the rising sun each 
morning. 

Their height, as given by the architect in the 
hieroglyphics, was seventy English feet, and this 
accords with the actual measure of to-day, if 2.47 
metres be allowed for the height of the head-dress, 
which is gone, and that is the exact height that 
a pshen crown should be. 

These two statues are in a sitting posture, and 
represent king Amenhotep III. They now stand 
alone, for the temple which rose behind them is a 




COLOSSI AT THEBES. 



Statues of Memnon. 137 

mass of ruins. These enormous figures were carved 
from single blocks of hard, red-brown sandstone, 
through which white quartz is mixed in small 
pieces. The execution shows a masterly control 
over this material, so hard, brittle and difficult 
to work. The statues are twenty-two feet apart, 
and that called the musical statue was partly 
thrown down by an earthquake, B.C. 27. 

Many travellers, of all nations, have written 
their names upon these grim guardians of the desert, 
and many of the older ones declare that they heard 
the musical tones at the hour of the sun's rising. 
" The Quarterly Review " of Februarj^, 1831, and 
April 1875, have interesting articles explaining 
these sounds, by a theory that split or cracked 
stones, after cooling through the night, as soon as 
the sun again begins to Heat them, emit a prolonged 
ringing or tinkling sound — " a peculiar, melancholy, 
singing tone." 

The value of the legend of the musical Memnon 
is much lessened when it is known that it is of com- 
paratively modern origin, and not a part of the 
antiquity to which the statue belongs. 

This architect, Amenhotep, was a brave man. 
lie came of noble stock, and his sayings were treas- 
ured and repeated as recently as the time of the 



138 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

Ptolemies. He had not only to make these statues, 
but to move them from the quarries by boats, to 
land them, again to move them and fix them in 
their places. Even with all the power of steam, 
which now so well serves to move great weights, 
the achievements of this Amenhotep, the son of 
Hapoo, remain an inexplicable enigma. 

These colossi and the temple near which they 
stood would have been works sufficient to satisfy 
the ambition of any sovereign but an Egyptian 
pharaoh. But Amenhotep III. also carried on the 
great national temple at Karnak to still fuller 
completeness, by raising an immense gateway be- 
fore the western front, and erecting a new temple 
to the north, and still another to the south dedi- 
cated to the goddess Mut. He also built the tem- 
ple of Luxor and united it to that of Karnak by an 
avenue of sphinxes in the form of rams couchant 
with the disk of the sun on their heads. The in- 
scriptions declare that the temple of Luxor was 
erected at the end of a campaign when "the king 
had mounted his horse to reach the extremest 
boundaries of the negroes, and had scattered the 
people of Kush, and had laid waste their country," 
and also that the king himself " gave instructions 




iw^tP'i 



The G-oddess Mut. 141 

and the directions, for he understood how to di- 
rect and guide the architects." 

The sitting statues of Mut, when represented 
with a lion's head, are attributed mostly to this 
king and his time. Mut, or u the mother," was 
the second person of the great triad of gods of 
Thebes. She stood next to Anion and was of 
great importance. There is a doubt as to whether 
she was the same goddess as Buto, as some writers 
have said, but there is no doubt of her being 
(sometimes) the same as Sokhet, the wife of Ptah, 
and in this character the second person of the great 
triad of Memphis. 

Other ruins at Elephantine, El-Kab, and various 
points in Nubia and the southern parts of his king- 
dom, bear witness in their inscriptions to the con- 
nection of Amenhotep III. with their creation or 
adornment. The records also prove that riches 
must have been showered upon him or he could 
not have bestowed them as lavishly as he did. 

The great architect of this reign, the son of Ha- 
poo, also built a temple on his own account, which 
was situated near the tombs of the women of the 
king's house, and was called the temple of Kak. 
A mandate of the king assured support to this 



142 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

temple and decreed that it should descend to the 
heirs of the noble architect for all time. 

The marriage made by Amenhotep III. was not 
en regie for a Pharaoh. He took his wife from 
some race far removed from his own, and to this 
day her origin remains unexplained. She was of 
no royal family, but the daughter of a couple named 
Juao and Thuao. In his 3 r outh, this king was a 
great hunter, and the scarabei frequently relate how 
with his own hand, he speared two hundred and 
ten lions in the land of Naharain. 

It would be a pretty story, if it should ever be 
told by the speaking stones, that he found his be- 
loved in some danger, and having saved her by his 
goodly arm, made her his wife, that Queen Thi, to 
whom he was fondly attached, and who so often 
appears by his side. The results of this irregular 
marriage of Amenhotep III. were stupendous, for 
when his son Amenhotep IV. came to the throne, 
1466 B.C., it appeared that he was not of the reli- 
gion of his fathers, and indeed, so hated the great 
god Amon that he sent out his scribes with ham- 
mer and chisel to obliterate from the monuments 
the name of the great Amon-ra. 

He changed his name and assumed that of Khu- 
aten, or " the splendor of the sun's disk," and he 



King Khuaten. 



143 



called himself " a high priest of Hormakhu," and 
" a friend of the sun's disk." 

The high priests of Amon and the people be- 
came so enraged at all this, that finally an open 
rebellion broke out, and the king determined to 






" m # - 



n 



riX 




V 


1£ 

l MS 



Mut. 



I. ' Mut, mistress of heaven.* 2. ' Mut, mistress 

of Aeher.t.' 3. 'Mut-Uati.' 4. «Mut, the soul 

mistress of Asher." 8. 'Mut, pupil of the Sun, 
regent of the Earth.' 



leave Thebes and to found a new capital, and there 
to institute his own religion and his own rule. 
He chose the place now called Tell-el-amarna, and 
there built a splendid temple to the sun-god Aten, 



144 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

upon a plan which in no wise followed that of the 
older temples. He made open courts with fire 
altars, and in many ways departed from the tra- 
ditions of his fathers. The temple was surrounded 
by the houses of the royal family, until at length 
seven young princesses had their separate abodes, 
and an eighth was added for their aunt, a sister of 
their mother, Queen Nofer-it Thi. 

In later days an attempt was made to utterly 
destroy this city, but the ruins prove that it was 
richlj' built and adorned with many beautiful mon- 
uments and sculptures. 

His architect was one Bek, a grandson of the 
architect Hor-amoo, and a son of Men, who was a 
sculptor under the father of Khuaten. The grave- 
stone of this Bek was sold at auction, not many 
years since, in the market-place of Cairo. 

The inscriptions which preserve the prayers used 
in the service of the religion of King Khuaten are 
most interesting. These prayers appeal closely to 
Christians by their manifestation of a devout con- 
ception of a God. The following extract is a por- 
tion of one of these petitions : 

" Beautiful is thy setting, thou Sun's disk of life, 
thou lord of lords and king of worlds. When 
thou unitest thyself with the heaven at thy setting, 



King Khuaten. 145 

mortals rejoice before thy countenance, and give 
honor to him who has created them, and pray be- 
fore him who has formed them, before the glance 
of thy son, who loves thee, King Khuaten. The 
whole land of Egypt and all peoples repeat all thy 
names at thy rising, to magnify thy rising in like 
manner as thy setting. Thou, O God, who in 
truth art the living one, standest before the two 
ej^es. Thou art he which createst what neve*,* 
was, which formest everything, which art in all 
things ; we also have come into being through the 
word of thy mouth." 

The sculptures in the tomb of King Khuaten 
represent a happy, domestic life, in which the 
king, surrounded by his mother, his queen and 
their daughters, seems to be fully repaid by his 
peaceful happiness for any loss that could have 
resulted from his separation from the priests of 
Amon-ra. 

This sovereign erected tablets, which still re- 
main, as memorials of his love for his daughters ; 
they were once destroyed by hostile Egyptians, 
but he replaced them with others which are now 
seen upon the living rock of the Libyan mountain, 
and in the valley to the south-east of Tell-el- 
amarna. 

Other sculptures represent Khuaten as he pre- 
sided over state ceremonies, arrayed in all the 



146 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

insignia of his rank and surrounded by such pomp 
as would impress the beholders with his power. 

Khuaten had no son, and at his death the hus- 
band of his eldest daughter, one Sa'anekht, became 
king. His reign was very short, and he was suc- 
ceeded by Tut-aukh-amon, the husband of the 
third daughter of King Khuaten. This king evi- 
dently threw off the worship of Aten. He returned 
to Thebes, and the priests consented to his rule, 
yet he never was considered as a legitimate sove- 
reign. No blood of the Pharaohs ran in his veins, 
and all the pomp and circumstance with which he 
surrounded himself could never hide this fact, or 
blot it from the remembrance of his people. 

One very remarkable souvenir of this Tut-aukh- 
amon remains in the tomb of Qurnah Murray. 
Here the king is represented on his throne, holding 
his court. Two governors of the South are present, 
and a negro queen, on a chariot drawn by oxen and 
surrounded by servants, comes to lay her rich 
gifts at the feet of her sovereign. The ruddy 
princes of the red land also bring their tributes 
and thus pray to the king : " Grant us freedom 
out of thy hand. Indescribable are thy victories, 
and no enemy appears in thy time. All lands 
rest in peace." 



Art of the Negroes. 147 

The representation of the gifts here presented to 
the king is calculated to impress upon the beholder 
the fact of the advanced state of the arts in 
that remote time. The art of ancient Phoenicia is 
of course admitted and fully appreciated, but the 
art of the negroes has scarcely been understood. 
The following extract from "Eygpt under the 
Pharaohs," by M. Brugsch-Bey, is of special inter- 
est. After speaking of the arts of the northern 
tributary tribes, he says, " If it may be allowed us, 
on the other hand, with equal certainty, to pass a 
judgment on the condition of culture and of handi- 
craft in the lands of the negroes in the fifteenth 
century, B.C., from the colored representations of 
these sepulchral chambers, a knowledge of which 
was acquired to science from the Prussian expedi- 
tion to Egypt under Lepsius, it becomes evident 
that here also — in spite of a peculiar direction of 
taste, which is seen, among other things, in furnish- 
ing the tips of the horns of the oxen Avith orna- 
ments like the hands of men — a certain artistic 
spirit is observable in the composition and in the 
execution of the outward forms of the utensils. 
Passing over for a moment the costly golden ves- 
sels, set with precious stones, the manifold uten- 
sils of domestic life, the chariots, the ships, the 



148 



The Reign of Thutmes III. 



weapons, and all the articles which the queen 
brings to Thebes, all these exhibit an unmistak- 
able development of artistic power, which must 
without doubt be ascribed on the one hand to 
Egyptian influence, and on the other to the natu- 
ral position of the so-called savage tribes, and to 




An Ethiopian princess travelling in a plaustrum or car drawn by oxen. Over her is a sort 
of umbrella. 3. Aii attendant. 4. The charioteer or driver. Thebes. 



their powers of imitation. Even at this day, the 
prejudice that the negro is, both in taste and in 
art, an unprogressive son of Adam, can be refuted 
by hundreds of facts which prove the direct con- 
trary in an incontrovertible manner in favor of 
our colored brethren. As representative of mod- 
ern Egypt at the two universal exhibitions at 



" The Holy Father Air 149 

Vienna in 1873, and at Philadelphia in 1876, I had 
the much desired opportunity of exhibiting the 
most wonderful works in gold and silver, as exam- 
ples of the finished artistic skill of the peoples of 
the Soodan, and of receiving prizes for black 
artists." 

The reign of Tut-aukh-amon was not of great 
length and he was followed by " The Holy Father 
Ai." Whether he obtained the throne by force or 
cunning is not told, but he certainly had no claim 
to rule over Egypt as a king. He was the husband 
of the nurse who had suckled king Khuaten and 
he had served as "master of the horse" to that 
king. He had gradually been promoted to vari- 
ous high offices, and had been named " fan-bearer 
on the right hand of the king, and superintendent 
of the whole stud of Pharaoh." He was also a 
" scribe of justice," and must therefore have been 
learned in the law. There are texts which record 
the fact that he and his wife, "the high nurse and 
nourishing mother of the godlike one, the dresser 
of the king," had received great riches from the 
king, even to that degree that much gossip was 
the result ; these conversations remain in the hiero- 
glyphics to this day. 

Ai seems to have been fully accepted by the 



150 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

priests or holy fathers, from whose number he had 
come forth. No farther mention is made of the 
" new teaching," and the old worship was fully 
restored. He was allowed to build his tomb 
among those of the kings, where to this day it 
remains, with his granite burial-case within. He 
carried on successful wars, and seems to have 
been a good king for the country. At his death, 
a great question arose as to who should succeed 
him. The choice fell upon Horemhib, called 
Horus by Manetho, the husband of Notem-mut, 
the sister-in-law of King Khuaten. This man was 
a devout servant of the god Horus, and dwelt in 
retirement at Ha-suten, near Tell-el-amarna. This 
city was the same with the Alabastronopolis of 
Ptolemy ; on the monuments it is also called Ha- 
benu, the " Phoenix city," and Hipponon by the 
Greeks. 

Horemhib had served as' the first official of the 
court of his brother-in-law, and from his birth 
many remarkable circumstances attended him, all 
of which are set down in a document now pre- 
served in the Museum at Turin. All the good 
fortune that came to him step by step ; all the ap- 
probation of the gods for him, and many wonderful 
things are therein- recounted, until all is crowned 



Horemhib. 



151 



by his coronation in tlie temple at Thebes. The 
account then says, "There came forth from the 
palace the holiness of this splendid gocl Amon, the 
king of the gods, with his son before him, and he 
embraced his pleasant form, which was crowned 




OSIRIS, ISIS, AND HORUS. 

with the royal helmet, in order to deliver to him 
the golden protecting image of the sun's disk. 
The nine foreign nations now under his feet, the 
heaven was in festive disposition, the land was 
filled with ecstasy, and as for the divinities of 



152 The Reign of Thutmes III. 

Egypt, their souls were full of pleasant feelings. 
Then the inhabitants, in high delight, raised 
towards heaven the song of praise ; great and 
small lifted up their voices, and the whole land 
was moved with joy." 

An inscription at Thebes, given in "Mariette's 
Karnak," also testifies to the good works of Horem- 
hib in that city, and that he was a great warrior 
and personally bare arms in Soodan, is recorded 
in a temple which he built at Silsilis. He was the 
last king of the eighteenth dynasty. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH DYNASTIES. 




BOTTLE OF BLUE 
GLASS. 



RAMSES L, who succeeded 
King Horemhib, may have 
been the brother or the son-in- 
law of the last sovereign of the 
eighteenth dynasty, but the rela- 
tionship cannot be traced. This 
Ramses is famous on account of 
being the founder of a dynasty, 
and as the father and grand- 
father of the famous kings, Seti 
I. and Ramses II. His reign was 
short, and no important account 
He was succeeded by Seti L, 



of him remains. 
B.C. 1366. 

To speak of this king as a warrior of great 



154 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

renown is to do him small justice, but to recount 
his campaigns would only afford a tiresome repe- 
tition of what has already been told in connection 
with older warlike kings. The theatre of his ex- 
ploits embraced the east, west, and south of Egypt 
proper, and he carried his arms in all these direc- 
tions as far as any Egyptian conqueror had pre- 
viously gone, and returned laden with booty. He 
was received with shouts of praise, and celebrated 
the feasts of his victories in the orthodox Eg3 r ptian 
manner. 

The texts give the following names of his con- 
quests in the east, besides others not sufficiently 
distinct to be repeated : 

1. Khita, the land of the Khita. 

2. Naharain, the river-land. 

3. Upper Ruthen, Canaan. 

4. Lower Ruthen, Northern Syria. 

5. Singar, the city and the land of Singara, the 
Sinear of Holy Scripture. 

6. Unu, an unknown island or coast-land. 

7. Kadesh, in the land of the Amorites. 

8. Pa-bekh), ,. . , -, „ , 

>both names require to be denned. 

9. Kadnaf ) 

10. Asebi, the island of Cyprus. 

11. Mannus, the city and land of Mallos. 



Ball at Karnak. 155 

12. Aguptha, the land of Cappadocia. 

13. Balnu, Balanese, to the north of Aradus. 
The following cities of Canaan were also con- 
quered by King Seti I. : 

Zithagael, Zor or Tyre, Inua'ne or Jamnia, Pa- 
Hir (Galilee?), and two cities of Judah of later 
times, called Bitha-'antha or Beth-anoth and Gar- 
tha-'anbu or Kiriath-eneb. 

As a builder, Seti I. takes high rank, and much 
space would be requisite to a proper description of 
such works as the great Hall of Columns, at Kar- 
nak, and the tomb, now known as Belzoni's, which 
was that of Seti I. The temple of Osiris at Aby- 
dos, the Memnonium at old Qurnah, commenced 
by him, and other new temples and splendid addi- 
tions to those which alreadj^ existed at Memphis 
and Heliopolis, swell the number of his vast 
achievements. The Hall of Columns is three hun- 
dred and twenty-nine feet long by one hundred and 
seventy wide — originally there were one hundred 
and thirty-four columns, one hundred and four- 
teen of which were standing in 1868 when the 
writer visited Karnak. The columns are of enor- 
mous size, some of them being twelve feet in diam- 
eter, and sixty-six feet high without base or capi- 
tal, which increase their height to ninety feet. 



156 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

These columns are covered with paintings and 
sculptures, while the capitals represent the full- 
blown flowers and the buds of the papyrus plant. 

The representations were doubtless intended by 
the king to show forth the greatness of the 
gods, and this they do, but the honor to the king 
himself is not to be ignored. He is represented as 
the familiar of the gods. He is seated among them, 
and even folded in their arms. He, the Pharaoh, 
is of colossal stature, while his subjects are dwarfs. 
He crushes his captives with one hand ; in short, 
however much he desired to exalt the holy triad 
of Thebes he forgot not to say, " I am Pharaoh." 

The tomb of Seti I. was not found by the 
Greeks, Romans or Arabs, and was only opened in 
1817 by Belzoni, an Italian scholar and antiqua- 
rian, by whose name it is since known. 

It is the finest tomb yet brought to light. It is 
entered by a staircase of twenty-four feet, which 
opens into a spacious passage, the walls of which 
are beautifully ornamented with sculptures and 
paintings. 

From this passage a second staircase descends 
almost as much as the first, and leads to a hall from 
which a second hall opens. Beyond these are two 
still finer halls, a third staircase, two more pas- 




THE HALL. OF lOLU.ua AT KARNAK. 



Behonis Tomb. 



159 



sages, and a small chamber, and beyond all these 
the so-called great hall in which was found the ala- 
baster sarcophagus of the king. This hall is about 
twenty-seven feet square, and beyond it are still 
other corridors and steps leading still farther into 
the mountain. In all, Belzoni's tomb is four hun- 
dred and five feet long with a descent of ninety- 
feet. 

With the sarcophagus was buried a sacred bull, 



iniMHi 



! 1 I I i I I 



^jmmmmmk 



M ft i 
U '/ 7* 



iLi_£iiiii^±i_ 







THE JUDGMENT HALL OF OSIRIS. 



and hundreds of little images representing mum- 
mies were left about the sarcophagus by the mourn- 
ers at the funeral. 

The sarcophagus, as well as the walls of this 
tomb, are covered with representations of gods and 
men, and all possible or imaginary experiences 



160 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

which might attend the body in life or the soul 
after death, its trial before the gods, and many 
mysteries. of the Egyptian faith. 

Beside these religious representations, one sees 
illustrations of all the occupations and amusements 
of the people, kitchens in which all the operations 
of a good cuisine are going on, games of all kinds, 
boats and all belonging to them, armor and weap- 
ons, furniture richly ornamented and gilded, all 
the labors of the husbandman, long processions of 
captives, and culprits suffering punishment. 

The colors of the pictures in this tomb are as 
fresh as when first used, and the richness of the 
decoration can scarcely be explained in words. 

The Memnonium is one of the most celebrated 
works of Egyptian art. It is on the western plain 
of Thebes, about three miles from the river, 
and is in . a comparatively good state of preserva- 
tion. This seems to have been both a temple and 
a palace, and, like all such buildings, is adorned 
with many works of art. There was a library here, 
over the entrance of which was written " Medicine 
for the Mind.'' It is impossible to convey any ac- 
curate idea of the extent of these temples or the 
effect which they produce on the mind. The sim- 
ple grandeur of their colossal halls and columns is 



The Memnonium. 



161 



indescribable, and wonder ever increases at the 
perfectness of what remains. There are no crumb- 
ling stones, no broken monoliths ; some are fallen, 
and the columns or statues, which were made from 
several pieces, are separated but not broken. 
There are no fading colors, though the walls may 



^ 







nmnm 




POULTERER'S SHOP. 



be uncovered, and the pictures may have been ex- 
posed to all the atmospheric changes, and to the 
great heat of the sun for thousands of Egj^ptian 
summers. Seti I. dedicated this wonderful temple 
to his father, and before the magnificent entrance 
stood that famous statue which, according to 
Diodorus, was inscribed thus : "lam the king of 
kings, Osymandyas, if any one wishes to know 



162 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass 
one of my works." 

This statue, ruined as it is, excites a double won- 
der as to how it was made and put in place and 
how destroyed. It was sixty feet high and twenty- 
two feet across the shoulders ; one toe is three 
feet in length. It is estimated to have weighed 
eight hundred and eighty-five tons, and was cat 
from a single block of stone, beautifully polished, 
and moved from the cataract of the Nile, a distance 
of about two hundred miles ! As the son of Seti, 
Ramses II. was associated with his father before 
his death, and took care to carry out his father '.s 
designs after he was dead, it is not easy to know 
precisely where the work of the father left off. 
Much more might be written of the art of this 
period, but enough has been said to show how 
great an interest Seti I. had in it, and how well 
fitted the artists were to repay the patronage of 
such a king. 

Another thing to which he gave particular at- 
tention was the development and working of the 
gold mines of the country, especially in Nubia. 
The king himself made a journey of inspection to 
the mines, and finding a scarcitj r of water he com- 
manded a well to be bored deep into the rocky 



\\ft\\VO^ »^ *V -^ ^\K\b k\\\ 



iMS 




Seti I. 165 

ground. The inscriptions call down on him bless- 
ings for this work and declare that " Now can we 
travel up with ease, and reach the goal and remain 
living. The difficult road lies open before us and 
hag become good. Now the gold can be carried 
up as the king and lord has seen. All the living 
generations, and those which shall be hereafter, 
will pray for an eternal remembrance for him." 

King Seti I. did all in his power to propitiate 
the priests of Amon. Still he and his race wor- 
shipped foreign gods, especially the Canaanitish 
Baal-Sutekh or Set, from whom the king was 
named. His queen was also a descendant of 
Khuaten, which, though in accordance with the 
Egyptian laws of succession, was yet a hateful 
thing to the priests of the old Theban religion. 
It is allowable to believe that he distrusted their 
good will towards his son, since he associated him 
in the kingly office when he could have been but 
twelve years old, and many acts attributed to 
Seti were performed during this double reign, 
when the son was still too young to be recognized 
as having any influence upon affairs. The exact 
time of the death of the old king is not known. 
The ancients believed that his soul flew like a 
bird to heaven. It is a pleasant theory, to say the 



166 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

least, and who can dispute it ? It was not found 
by Belzoni ! But to speak seriously, he did not 
live to see the completion of his tomb, or the 
Memnonium, or of many other undertakings which 
he had inaugurated. 

Ramses II. is known by several different names, 
and was the Sesostris of the Greek writers ; the 
Sethosis and Ramesses of Manetho, and the Ses, 
Sestesu, Setesu and Sestura of the Egyptian rec- 
ords. He is also called Miamuri I., and bears the 
title, A-nakhtu, or " The Conqueror." 

He came to the throne as sole king about B. c. 
1333, and so much is related concerning him in 
the remaining inscriptions that it is difficult to 
decide what should be chosen for a limited sketch 
of his career. 

The first important act of his reign was the com- 
pletion of the temple at Abydos, commenced by 
his father, Seti I. Upon one wall of this temple 
Ramses placed an inscription of great length, in 
which he addresses his father, and adds a reply 
which the dead king is supposed to make. The 
architectural works of the son are quite inferior to 
those of the father, and though they are many, his 
fame rests slightly upon them. It is as a states- 
man and soldier that he merits attention, and the 



Ramses II 169 

copious, boastful records which his vanity im- 
pelled him to make, now fulfil his desire to be 
made known through all times, to all nations. 

It is not possible to speak of all the buildings 
of Ramses II., for their names are legion. The 
more important were the temple of Abydos, great 
additions to the temple of Ptah in Memphis, many 
works at Thebes, the completion of the Rames- 
seum, other works in different parts of Nubia, of 
which the great temple at Abu Simbel is the chief, 
and, more than all, the enormous labors which he 
caused to be executed at Zoan-Tanis, the city to 
Avhich he removed his court, and where he founded 
a city within a city, called " the city of Ramses," 
and where he built up that place which from his 
time took on great importance. It was the city 
from which Moses led forth the children of Israel. 

As a greater interest is connected with his works 
here than Avith those which more nearly follow the 
customs of his ancestors, the space we have will 
be given to them. 

This city, situated on the eastern frontier of 
Egypt, was very important from its position on the 
Tanitic arm of the Nile, where it commanded the . 
entrance of the two great roads to Palestine. Per- 
ceiving the advantages of this position, Ramses II. 



ro 



Nineteenth and Tiventietli Dynasties. 



established himself there, strengthened the for- 
tresses, built a new temple-city within the old 
city, and instituted there the united worship of 
Anion, Ptah, Hormakhu, and Sutekh. He erected 
many statues and obelisks, and so glorified the 
city, called Pi-Ramessu, that it was henceforth the 
capital of the empire. 

A description of it, given by an ancient Egyptian 
letter-writer says : " Nothing can compare with it 
on the Theban land and soil. . . . It is pleas- 
ant to live in. Its fields are full of good things, 
and life passes in constant plenty and abundance. 
Its canals are rich in fish, its lakes swarm with 
birds, its meadows are green with vegetables, there 
is no end of the lentils ; melons with a taste like 
honey grow in the irrigated fields. Its barns are 
full of wheat and durra, and reach as high as 
heaven. Onions and sesame are in the enclosures, 
and the apple-tree blooms (?). The vine, the 
almond-tree, and the fig-tree grow in the gardens. 
Sweet is their wine for the inhabitants of Kemi. 
They mix it with honey. The 4 red-fish is in the 
Lotus canal, the Borian-fish in the ponds. . . . 
The city-canal Pshenhor produces salt, the lake 
region of Pahir natron. Their sea-ships enter the 
harbor, plenty and abundance is perpetual in it 



Pi-Rarnessu. 171 

He rejoices who has settled there. My informa- 
tion is no jest. The common people, as well as the 
higher classes, say, 6 Come hither ! let us celebrate 
to him his heavenly and his earthly feasts.' The 
inhabitants of the reedy lake (Thufi) arrived with 
lilies, those of Pshenhor with papyrus flowers. 
Fruits from the nurseries, flowers from the gardens, 
birds from the ponds, are dedicated to him. Those 
who dwell near the sea, came with fish, and the 
inhabitants of their lakes honored him. The youths 
of the ' conqueror's city ' were perpetually clad 
in festive attire. Fine oil was on their heads of 
fresh curled hair. They stood at their doors, their 
hands laden with branches and flowers from Pa- 
hathor, and with garlands from Pahir, on the day 
of the entry of king Ramessu-Miamun, the god of 
war Monthu upon earth, in the early morning of 
the monthly feast of Kihith. . . . All people 
were assembled, neighbor with neighbor, to bring 
forward their complaints. Delicious was the wine 
for the inhabitants of the c conqueror's city.' 
Their cider was like . . . their sherbets were 
like almonds mixed with honey. There was beer 
from Kati (Galilee) in the harbor, wine in the 
gardens, fine oil at the lake Sagabi, garlands in the 
apple-orchards. The sweet song of women re- 



172 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasty. 

sounded to the tunes of Memphis. So they sat 
there with joyful heart, or walked about without 
ceasing. King Ramessu-Miamun, he was the god 
they celebrated." 

Ramses is mentioned as a treasure city, Exo- 
dus, i. : 13, and it is believed that the Pharaoh who 
knew not Joseph, was none other than Ramses II., 
the Pharaoh of the oppression, and the father of 
that unnamed princess, who rescued the child 
Moses from his hiding place in the bulrushes.* 

Because of these associations, the improvement 
of Zoan-Tanis is by far the most interesting to us 
of all the works of the great Sesostris. 

Without entering upon any detailed account of 
the wars of Ramses II., such circumstances as are 
of the most use in elucidating the history of Egypt 
may be given. 

In the early part of his reign a fierce war broke 
out between the Egyptians and the people of the 
Khita, which is to saj', a land which was first in 
importance in the league of the cities of Western 
Asia, inhabited by a noble race, whose chivalry 
and superior character made them the peers of the 



* The opinions on this point, as given by M. Brugsch-Bey, in his 
" Egypt under the Pharaohs," Chap, xiv., are well worth consider- 
ation. 



The War of the Khita. 



173 



Egyptians and an enemy which threatened to be- 
come a dominant race. It is most reasonable, 
from existing knowledge, to believe the people of 
the Khita to be the same with the Hittites of the 
Scriptures — that people so prominent from the 
time of Abraham down to the days of the cap- 
tivity. The principal battle in the war against 




PHALANX OF THE KHITA. 



the Khita, was that of Kadesh, on the bank of the 
Orontes. It was, in fact, a dreadful slaughter, 
and the courage of the Khita was so broken that 
they implored mercy from Ramses in the most ab- 
ject manner. 

At Abydos, Luxor, Karnak, and other places, 



174 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

there are inscriptions which recount the story of 
this battle, and the pictures of it remind one of 
Pope's lines: 

"High on his car Sesostris struck my view, 
Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew; 
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold; 
His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold, 
Between the statues obelisks were placed, 
And the learned walls with hieroglyphics graced. " 

A Homeric poem was written by the temple- 
scribe, Pentaur, which still exists, and is the oldest 
known heroic song in the world. It appears from 
all the testimony of those various writings, that 
the personal bravery and prowess of the king, on 
this occasion, is almost if not quite unequalled in 
history. We are told that, " when the king had 
halted, he sat down on the north-west of the town 
of Kadesh. He had come up with the hosts of 
Khita, being quite alone, no other was with him. 
There were thousands and hundreds of chariots 
round about him on all sides. He dashed them 
down in heaps of dead bodies before his horses. 
He killed all the kings of all the peoples who were 
allies of the (kings) of Khita, together with his 
princes and elders, his warriors and his horses. 
He threw them one upon another, head over heels, 



Poem of Pentaur. 



175 



into the waters of the Orontes. There the king of 
Khita turned round, and raised up his hands to 
implore the divine benefactor.'' 

The poem of Pentaur, which was first translated 
by Roug£ and later by Brugsch-Bey, is such, even 




RAMSES SLAYING CAPTIVES. 



in a translation, that it commands the admiration 
of scholars now, as it must have done in the time 
of its author, when the appreciation of it was 
shown by its reproduction on the temple walls. 
How could a more flattering testimonial be made 
to any writer ? 



1T6 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, 

The tablets near Beyrout, well known to trav- 
ellers of all ages and countries, prove that Sesos- 
tris must have extended his campaigns even to 
that point — and upon two occasions, separated 
by a space of three years' time. 

Other successful campaigns, in the country later 
known as Galilee, the storming of Askalon, the 
subjection of cities in the " land of Kush," and 
other conquests in Libya, are all related in various 
well authenticated texts. 

From the reading of inscriptions at Abu Simbel 
it is plain that this king carried on his wars by 
sea as well as land, though no detailed accounts of 
his naval engagements have yet been found. 

After a time Ramses II. and the Khita made a 
treaty of offensive and defensive alliance, and be- 
came so important to each other in their joint 
opposition to the warlike tribes around them, that 
they confirmed their peaceful relations by the 
marriage of the great king with the daughter of 
the king of Khita. A memorial tablet was sol- 
emnly set up on this occasion in the temple of 
Abu Simbel (or Ibsambul) and the young queen 
was called Ur-maa Nofiru-ra. 

Like his father, Ramses II. gave his attention to 
the greater developments of the gold mines of the 



Influence of Foreigners. 177 

kingdom ; new wells were dug and all work con- 
nected with the mines vigorously pushed on, so 
that the slaves and prisoners employed as gold 
washers suffered pitiably under the Hir-pit or cap- 
tain of the foreigners. 

The extensive conquests of this king brought so 
many captives into Egypt that it is estimated that 
when they were added to the foreigners who were 
in the land before his reign, one-third of the entire 
population was not Egyptian. These captives 
were employed as seamen, soldiers, miners, build- 
ers, and so on, and were branded with the king's 
name, in order to guard against their escape, and 
to aid in their recapture in case of flight. 

From this period, many Semitic words appear in 
the Egyptian language, which plainly shows the 
effect of so great a foreign element. In some re- 
spects the language gains in richness and fulness 
of expression, but when this mingling of tongues 
was freely indulged, it became offensive to good 
taste, and there exists a satirical letter, written 
about B. c. 1300, by a learned man to his pupil 
who had immoderately employed the foreign words 
and expressions. 

Ramses II. had a long and prosperous reign — 
sixty-seven years in all, of which at least half must 



178 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

have been shared with his father. He had also a 
happy domestic life ; three wives of his are named 
in the texts, Tsenofer, his favorite, Nofer-ari Mien- 
mut, and the princess of Khita. He must also 
have had many concubines, since the list of his 
children on the temple of Abydos names fifty- 
nine sons and sixty daughters. 

The tomb of Sesostris is so inartistic and 
unattractive as to merit no attention from trav- 
ellers, and it is quite beyond explanation that 
so powerful an Egyptian king should have found 
so humble a burial-place. Mineptah II., the four- 
teenth in the list of the children of Sesostris came 
to the throne B. c. 1300. Under him no great w^ars 
or improvements were made, and the chief interest 
attached to him is, that he was the Pharaoh of the 
Exodus. In this connection we quote from 
" Egypt under the Pharaohs " : — " If Ramses-Sesos- 
tris, the builder of the temple-city of the same 
name in the territory of Zoan-Tanis, must be re- 
garded beyond all doubt as the Pharaoh under 
whom the Jewish legislator Moses first saw the 
light, so the chronological relations — having re- 
gard to the great age of the two contemporaries, 
Ramses II. and Moses — demand, that Mineptah 
should in all probability be acknowledged as the 



The Exodus. 181 

Pharaoh of the Exodus. He also had his royal 
seat in the city of Ramses, and seems to have 
strengthened its fortifications. The Bible speaks 
of him only under the general name of Pharaoh, 
that is, under a true Egyptian title, which was 
becoming more and more frequent at the time now 
under our notice. Pir'-to — 'great house, high 
gate ' — is, according to the monuments, the desig- 
nation of the land of Egypt for the time being. 
This does not of itself furnish a decisive argument. 
Only the incidental statement of the Psalmist, 
(Psalm lxxviii. 43), that Moses wrought his won- 
ders in the field of Zoan, carries us back again to 
those sovereigns, Ramses II. and Mineptah, who 
were fond of holding their court in Zoan-Ramses. 

. . . . the hope can scarcely be cherished 
that we shall ever find on the public monuments 
— rather let us say in some hidden roll of papyrus — 
the events, repeated in an Egyptian version, 
which relate to the Exodus of the Jews, and the 
destruction, of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. For the 
record of these events was inseparably connected 
with the humiliating confession of a divine visita- 
tion, to which a patriotic writer at the court of 
Pharaoh would hardly have brought his mind. 

Pre-supposing, then, that Mineptah is to be 



182 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

regarded as the Pharaoh of the Exodus, this ruler 
must have had to endure serious disturbances of 
all kinds during his reign : — in the west, the 
Libyans ; in the east, the Hebrews ; and, let us at 
once add, in the south, a spirit of rebellion, which 
declared itself by the insurrection of a rival king 
of the family of the great Ramses-Sesostris. The 
events, which form the lamentable close of his rule 
over Egypt, are passed over by the monuments 
with perfect silence. The dumb tumulus covers 
the misfortune which was suffered." 

In the review of the reign of Mineptah II. the 
literary element gains in importance, and many fine 
specimens of the Theban writings of this time 
yet remain ; there are treatises upon theology, phi- 
losophy and history, as well as poems and stories. 

The next king was called b} r two names, Seti 
II. and Mineptah III. He came to the throne B.C. 
1266, and no records of his reign exist after the 
first two years, and in these no new thing worthy 
of note is recounted. His son, Setnakht-Merer- 
Miamun II., succeeded him in B. c. 1233, and but 
little is related of him in the remaining texts. He 
lived in troublous times and suffered from enemies 
in his own household as well as from those abroad. 

In the end, he must have been conqueror, since 



Ramses IIL 183 

his son Ramses III. so declares in his record known 
as the " Great Harris Papyrus." 

Ramses III. was the first sovereign of the twen- 
tieth dynasty, and bore exactly the same official 
titles as had belonged to the great Ramses II. He 
is therefore distinguished by the name Haq-on or 
" Prince of Heliopolis." The Egyptians called him 
Ramessu-pa-nuter, " the god Ramses," and the 
Greeks formed from this their title of Rhampsini- 
tus. 

Sufficient material for an account of his reign 
exists in the Harris Papyrus, given in his own 
words. He relates that the disturbances of pre- 
vious reigns had so demoralized the caste dis- 
tinctions that he was forced to set himself seriously 
to work to reform these abuses, from the caste of 
the councillors of the king clown to the lowest 
caste of the common people. 

Next he turned his attention to the enemies 
which surrounded him on all sides. In war he 
was successful, and added much to the resources of 
the country by the treasures of all sorts which he 
wrested from those whom he subdued. From a 
single victory he brought off twelve thousand five 
hundred and thirty-five hands and members, as a 



184 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

proof of the numbers slain — these were all 
counted out before the king. 

The list of those whom he conquered was in- 
scribed on his palace at Medinet Abu, and it 
includes seven kings, and many others of high rank. 

Ramses III. also cultivated the arts of peace. 
He built " Ramessea " in at least ten Egyptian 
cities, and still others outside his own country, one 
being in the city of Canaan. 

The finest ruins of the buildings of his time are 
those of Medinet Abu, upon which many valuable 
texts and pictures still remain. 

Many temples erected by this Ramses were 
modest in their proportions, and the remains at 
Medinet Abu are the only ones which receive great 
attention from travellers in Egypt. The inscrip- 
tions here are of much importance, since they not 
only record matters connected with the king, but 
give lists of the feasts and other interesting facts. 

The account of the riches which Ramses III. 
showered upon the temples indicates that the 
original "Aladdin's lamp" was his! It tells of 
gold in grains up to the weight of a thousand 
pounds, of bars of silver, of precious stones, 
including enormous quantities of the blue-stone of 
Tafrer, and the usual blue and green-stone of the 




PALACE OF R AMESES UL. MEDINET-ABOl . 



Prosperity under Ramses III. 187 

country which was very valuable, and the real 
green-stone of Roshatha ; of copper and lead ore 
in vast amounts, of all sorts of incense, and 
besides all these things in crude form, untold num- 
bers of rings and other ornaments, vases, coffers, 
and images of precious substances. 

Ramses III. also built a fleet of ships to be used 
in commerce with the land of Punt. He estab- 
lished, too, a caravan route for the merchants who 
passed and repassed from Egypt to the rich terri- 
tories of the more distant East. 

He sent out men to open up new copper mines, 
and much ore was brought back to him ; he 
planted trees and shrubs in all the land to give 
shade to the people, and finally his kingdom was 
brought into the most prosperous and safe con- 
ditions of peace. 

There also exists a full account of a wide-spread 
conspiracy in the Harem of this sovereign. In it 
many officers of his household were involved, 
while the excitement it occasioned was only allayed 
by the most solemn legal proceedings, followed by 
severe punishment of the guilty ones. The papy- 
rus at Turin, which was first explained by Deveria, 
and called by him "Le Papyrus Judicaire," gives 
a detailed account of this affair. It is a most val- 



188 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

uable document and throws much light upon the 
life of the women of that day, and shows the dan- 
gers from them to which the king was exposed. 

The queen of Ramses III. was not an Egyptian. 
Upon the temple of victory, at Medinet Abu, are 
represented eighteen sons and fourteen daughters 
of this king — ten of the sons are called by their 
names, while the others are only represented by 
their portraits. 

The eldest son, generally called Ramses IV., 
succeeded to the throne. 

The only important circumstance of his reign, 
which is now known, is that he sent an expedition 
numbering eight thousand three hundred and sixty- 
five men into the valleys of Hammamat. The 
object of this enormous equipment was said to be 
the creation of monuments, none of which are now 
remaining. Nine hundred men died on the 
journey. The company embraced councillors of 
the king, the superintendents of the quarry and 
of the herds, the colonel of the war chariots, 
many scribes and superior officers of the courts, 
besides large numbers of soldiers and servants. 

Ramses V. followed, of whose reign nothing 
can be said of importance. He was succeeded by 
the brothers Meritum and Ramses VI., who reigned 



Ramses IX. 189 

conjointly. The tomb of Ramses VI. is very im- 
portant, on account of the astronomical tables 
there inscribed, which are of great value to science. 
In no other way which commands attention has 
this sovereign been commemorated. His followers, 
Ramses VII. and Ramses VIII., are also entirely 
unimportant when considered in connection with 
the monuments and writings of ancient Egypt. 

Ramses IX., who came to the throne B. c. 1133, 
is the first king who is distinctly represented on 
the monuments as holding a position inferior to 
that of the priests of Amon-ra, who in later days 
exalted themselves to the throne. This king is 
pictured in the act of rewarding a priest who had 
done much for the honor of Amon-ra. The custom 
of the older time is here exactly reversed, for then 
the priests rewarded the king, by singing his 
praises and even paying him divine honors while 
he still lived. 

During the reign of Ramses IX., a society of 
thieves was organized in Thebes, devoted to the 
opening and robbing of the tombs of the kings of 
the preceding dynasties. The tombs which thus 
suffered were those of the monarchs of the eleventh, 
thirteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth dynasties. 
Several papyri exist which give accounts of the 



190 Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. 

proceedings instituted for the detection of the 
offenders and of judicial matters relating to them. 

Ramses X. and Ramses XI. may be passed with 
the bare mention of their names, while of Ramses 
XII., an unimportant, but curious story may be 
told. Ramses III. had built at Thebes a temple 
to the god Khonsu or "the preserver." This tem- 
ple gradually became a sort of family shrine, and 
was, moreover, an oracle. 

Ramses XII. had married a foreign princess of 
the land of Bakhatana, and a sister of the queen 
being ill, and suffering much, she was possessed by 
an evil spirit. The king, her father, then sent to 
Pharaoh, and begged that Khonsu might be sent 
into his country to exorcise this evil spirit, and 
thus cure the princess, the sister-in-law of Ramses 
XII. Consent was granted to this request and 
Khonsu was borne to a distant city, seventeen 
months being required for the journey. 

When the princess was cured, the god was still 
retained in Bakhatana for some time, and then re- 
turned to Thebes, together with many rich gifts for 
his temple. 

Ramses XIII. was the last king of the twentieth 
dynasty. A document, undoubtedly an autograph 



Ramses III, 



191 



letter of this king's, is one of the riches of the 
Egyptian collection at Turin. 

With the close of this dynasty the history of the 
priestly sovereigns begins. 




CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS AT PHII^E. 



CHAPTER VI. 

FROM THE TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY TO THE 

CONQUEST BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 

B.C. 1100 TO 332. 



THIS dynasty, which 
extended from 1100 
to 966 b. c, was a time of 
much disturbance and 
great changes in Egypt. 

The race of the Ram- 
essids had been over- 
thrown by the cunning of 
the chief-priest of Anion, 
who possessed himself of 
the throne and took the 
name of Siamon Hirhor. 
Besides being the chief 
priest of Thebes, he had been the chief fan-bearer, 
the chief architect, the chief general of the armies 

192 




Mill 

nifliiiiiuiir 



DRESS OF THE KING. 



* Assyrian Kings. 193 

of the double country and the administrator of the 
granaries. 

Naturally he had been in contact with people of 
all ranks and classes, and had improved his oppor- 
tunities by attaching to his interest many power- 
ful persons upon whose support he could rely, out- 
side the priesthood, which he controlled under all 
circumstances. However, the well-laid plans of 
this cunning Hirhor were never fully carried out, 
for the new Assyrian power, which had replaced 
that of the Khita, was enlisted on the side of the 
Ramessids, who are believed to have been in exile 
in the Great Oasis. This fact laid great restraints 
upon the priest-king and positively lessened the 
extent of his kingdom since the Assyrians forbade 
him all control of the lands east of Egypt. 

A descendant of the last Pharaoh, probably his 
great-grandson, and thus Ramses XVI., mar- 
ried a royal princess, a daughter of the Assj^rian 
monarch, Pallasharnes. On account of this alli- 
ance the Assyrians marched into Egypt, and their 
attack, together with the dissensions which had 
arisen in favor of the exiled family, ended in dis- 
placing the priest-king, and placing an Assyrian 
monarch on the throne of Egypt. 

This first Assyrian army which entered Egypt 



194 Tiventy-First Dynasty. 

was led by Nimrod, who was already king of 
Assyria, being associated with his father, Shas- 
hanq, who had married an Egyptian princess. 

For this reason, when Nimrod died in Egypt, his 
mother had him buried at Abyclos, and made a 
great provision of riches for the continual care and 
preservation of his tomb. In later } T ears, when his 
father, Shashanq, visited this tomb he found that 
it had been neglected and the income belonging to 
it used for other purposes. The officials who had 
clone this wrong were brought to justice and pun- 
ished by death. The statue of Nimrod, formerly 
in his tomb at Abydos, is now in the Egyptian 
collection at Florence. It is headless, but the in- 
scriptions upon it are sufficient for its identifica- 
tion. 

An account of all the circumstances connected 
with the tomb of Nimrod exists upon a rock- 
tablet found at Abyclos. It is of great interest, 
and a translation of it was first given to the world 
by Brugsch. * 

After the death of Nimrod, his son Shashanq 
was made king of Egypt. He married the Princess 
Karamat, a descendant of the Ramessids, and thus 

* " Egypt under the Pharaohs." Vol. II., p. 199. 




EGYPTIAN PALM GROVE, 



Shashanq I. 197 

the interests of the old and the new (the twenty- 
second) dynasties were united. On a Avail of the 
temple at Karnak there is a long inscription 
concerning the restoration of this queen to her 
hereditary rights. 

Shashanq, Sheshonk or Shishak made Bubastis 
his residence, and seldom visited the northern por- 
tion of his kingdom. The reign of this king was 
the most flourishing period in the history of this 
city, and Herodotus, in his time, declared that he 
had seen no more beautiful temple than that of 
the goddess Pasht or Diana, at Bubastis. 

The reign of Shashanq is only remarkable for 
his war upon the kingdom of Judah. A full 
scripture account of this war is given in the first 
book of Kings, and another record of it is found in 
outline upon the temple of Anion, at Thebes. 

When Jeroboam rebelled against Solomon, he 
fled to Egypt, and when, after the death of Solo- 
mon, a division arose in the Hebrew kingdom, one 
party adhered to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, 
and the opposing party sent to Egypt, asking Jer- 
oboam to return and be their leader. Thus it 
happened that Shashanq became an ally of Jero- 
boam, and made that famous expedition which 
ended in the taking of Jerusalem. The Egyptian 



198 Twenty-First Dynasty. 

pictures represent the king as colossal in size, 
dealing heavy blows with his club upon the Jewish 
captives. A list of the towns and districts con- 
quered is given in hieroglyphics, as w^ell as a speech 
addressed to the king by the great god, Amon. 
The Egyptian army engaged in the Judsean war 
was very large. The fabulous numbers of twelve 
hundred chariots and sixty thousand horses, with a 
grand army on foot, can scarcely be credited ; 
but they achieved a great triumph, and bore home 
an enormous booty, including, it is said, the golden 
shields from the temple of Solomon. 

Shashanq I. added to the temple of Karnak a 
hall, sometimes called that " of the Bubastids," 
because the names of several of his line are there 
inscribed. An account of the journey to Silsilis, in 
search of the stone used in the construction of this 
hall, is found in an inscription in that place, where, 
it is said that the king caused a new quarry to be 
opened. 

From the time of Hir-hor it was the custom to 
make the eldest son of the king a priest of the 
Theban Amon. Shashanq I. conferred this office 
upon his son. Auputh, and made him also com- 
mander-in-chief and general of his entire army. 
Auputh died before his father, and his younger 



Worship of the Bull. 199 

brother ascended the throne under the name of 
Usarkon I. Nothing is known of his.reign, and with 
him the importance of his line ended. The de- 
scendants of Shashanq became petty kings in 
various parts of a divided realm. Sometimes they 
were allies of the Assyrians — again they were 
leagued with the Ethiopian kings, and scarcely 
any remnant of them exists beyond the inscrip- 
tions upon the tombstones of the Apis-bulls, for 
they retained the city of Memphis where the bull 
was worshipped and performed the funeral rites 
whenever one of these sacred animals died. These 
inscriptions, are more important on account of the 
information they give regarding the strange wor- 
ship of this animal, than for anything that can be 
told of this dark time in Egyptian history. 

Everything connected with the worship of the 
sacred bull is curious and interesting. The bull 
was considered a form of the great god Osiris. 
The following extracts from Wilkinson's " Man- 
ners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," give 
much information on this subject : 

"Herodotus,* in describing him, says, ; Apis, also 
called Epaphus, is a young bull, whose mother can 

* Herodot. iii.28. 



200 Tiventy-First Dynasty. 

have no other offspring, and who is reported by 
the Egyptians to conceive from lightning sent from 
heaven, and thus to produce the god Apis. He is 
known by certain marks : his hair is black ; on his 
forehead is a white triangular spot, on his back an 
eagle, and a beetle under his tongue, and the hair 
of his tail is double.' Ovid speaks of him as variis 
coloribus Apis. Strabo describes him with the 
forehead and some parts of his body of a white 
color, the rest being black, by which signs they 
fix upon a new one to succeed the other when he 
dies. Plutarch * observes that, c on account of the 
great resemblance they imagine between Osiris 
and the moon, his more bright and shining parts 
being shadowed and obscured by those that are of 
a darker hue, they call the Apis the living image 
of Osiris, and suppose him begotten by a ray of 
generative light, flowing from the moon, and 
fixing upon his dam at a time when she was 
strongly disposed for generation.'! Pliny J speaks 
of Apis 'having a white spot in the form of a 

* Plut. de Isid. s. 43. 

t It appears from the inscriptions at the Serapeum of Memphis, 
that Apis was produced by Ptah out of a heifer, and he was the in- 
carnation of the soul of that god, being called "the second life of 
Ptah" — S. B. 

% Plin. viii. 46. 



The Bull Apis. 201 

crescent upon his right side, and a lump under his 
tongue in the form of a beetle.' Ammianus Mar- 
cellinus * says the white crescent on his right side 
was the principal sign by which he was known ; 
and iElian mentions twenty-nine marks by which 
he was recognized, each referable to some mystic 
signification. But he pretends that the Egyptians 
did not allow those given by Herodotus and Aris- 
tagoras. 

" Memphis was the place where Apis was kept 
and where his worship w^as particularly observed. 
He was not merely looked upon as an emblem, but, 
as Pliiry and Cicero say, was deemed ' a god by the 
Egyptians '; f and Strabo J calls Apis the same 
as Osiris. Psammatichus § there erected a grand 
court, ornamented with figures in lieu of columns 
twelve cubits in height, forming a peristyle around 
it, in which he was kept when exhibited in public. 
Strabo says, ' Before the enclosure where Apis 
is kept, is a vestibule, in which also the mother of 
the sacred bull is fed ; and into this vestibule 
Apis is sometimes introduced, in order to be shown 

* Aram. Marcellin. xxii. 1-1. 

t Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 1. Flin. viii. 46. 

% Strabo, xvii. p. 5~>5. When iElian (xi. 10) says, "They compare 
Apis to Horus, being the cause of fertility," he evidently means 
Osiris. 

I Herodot. ii. 153. 



202 Twenty-First Dynasty. 

to strangers. After being brought out for a little 
while, he is again taken back. At other times he 
is only seen through a window.' The festival in 
honor of Apis lasted seven days ; on which 
occasion a large concourse of people assembled at 
Memphis. The priests then led the sacred bull in 
solemn procession, every one coming forward from 
their houses to welcome him as. he passed ; and 
Pliny and Solinus affirm that children who smelt 
his breath were thought to be thereby gifted with 
the power of predicting future events. 

" When the Apis died, certain priests chosen for 
this duty went in quest of another, who was known 
from the signs mentioned in the sacred books. As 
soon as he was found, they took him to the City of 
the Nile, preparatory to his removal to Memphis, 
where he was kept forty days ; during which 
period women alone were permitted to see him. 
These forty days being completed, he was placed 
in a boat, with a golden cabin, prepared to receive 
him, and he was conducted in state down the Nile 
to Memphis." 

It is said by some writers that the bull was only 
suffered to live twenty-five years, and when that 
time arrived he was led to the fountain of the 
priests and drowned with great ceremony. The 



The Bull Apis. 203 

reason for twenty-five being fixed as the number 
of years was, that it was the square of five, and the 
same as the number of letters in the Egyptian 
alphabet. His body was embalmed and he was 
buried with magnificent and expensive ceremonies, 
which were made especially impressive when Apis 
died a natural death within the prescribed time for 
him to live. The ceremonials attendant upon the 
discovery of a new Apis are described by various 
authors, all of whom agree as to their solemnity 
and importance. 

" The Egyptians not only paid divine honors to 
the bull Apis, but, considering him the living 
image * and representative of Osiris, they con- 
sulted him as an oracle, and drew from his actions 
good or bad omens. They were in the habit of 
offering him any kind of food, with the hand : if 
he took it, the answer was considered favorable ; f 
if he refused, it was thought to be a sinister omen. 
Pliny and Ammianus Marcellinus observe that he 
refused what the unfortunate Germanicus pre- 
sented to him ; and the death of that prince, which 
happened shortly after, was thought to confirm 
most unequivocally the truth of those presages. 

* Plut.de Isid. s. 39. Amm. Marcellin. lib. xxii. 
f Plin. lib. viii. c. 48. 



204 Twenty-First Dynasty. 

" The Egyptians also drew omens respecting tlie 
welfare of their country, according to the stable in 
which he happened to be. To these two stables he 
had free access ; and when he spontaneously en- 
tered one, it foreboded benefits to Egypt, as the 
other the reverse ; and many other tokens were 
derived from accidental circumstances connected 
with this sacred animal. 

"Pausanias * says, that those who wished to con- 
sult Apis first burnt incense on an altar, filling the 
lamps with oil Avhich were lighted there, and de- 
positing a piece of money on the altar to the right 
of the statue of the god. Then placing their mouth 
near his ear, in order to consult him, they asked 
whatever questions they wished. This done, they 
withdrew, covering their two ears until they were 
outside the sacred precincts of the temple ; and 
there listening to the first expression any one 
uttered, they drew from it the desired omen. 

" Children, also, according to Pliny and Solinus, 
who attended in great numbers during the pro- 
cession in honor of the divine bull, received the 
gift of foretelling future events : and the same 
authors mention a superstitious belief at Memphis, 

* Pausan. ]ib. viii. 



Burial-place of the Bull. 205 

of the influence of Apis upon the crocodile, during 
the seven days when his birth was celebrated. On 
this occasion, a gold and silver patera was annually 
thrown into the Nile, at a spot called from its form 
4 the Bottle : ' and while this festival was held, no 
one was in danger of being attacked by crocodiles, 
though bathing carelessly in the river. But it 
could no longer be done with impunity after the 
sixth hour of the eighth day. The hostility of that 
animal to man was then observed invariably to re- 
turn, as if permitted by the deity to resume its 
habits. Apis was usually kept in one or other of 
the two stables. But on certain occasions he was 
conducted through the town with great pomp. 
He was then escorted by numerous guards, and a 
chorus of children singing hymns in his honor 
headed the procession. The attention paid to 
Apis, and the care they took of his health by 
scrupulously selecting the most wholesome food, 
were so great, that even the water he drank was 
taken from a particular well set apart for his use ; 
and it was forbidden to give him the water of the 
Nile, in consequence of its being found to have a 
peculiarly fattening property." 

In 1851 Mariette Bey discovered the burial- 
place of the sacred bulls at Saqqarah, and informa- 



206 Tiventy '-First Dynasty. 

tion gained there has added much to the knowl- 
edge of the worship of Apis. Here are chambers 
in which bulls were buried from the time of Amen- 
hotep III., down to the time of the Romans, and it 
appears that the so-called step-pyramid of Saq- 
qarah was a very ancient Apeuin. 

The dynasty called that of the Bubastids was 
the twenty-second, the following one is called the 
Dynasty of Tanis, but its story only appears in 
snatches, as the struggles now with Assyrians and 
again with Ethiopians are described, and the kings 
of Egypt of this time appear to have done no great 
deeds of war abroad, or to have wrought the works 
of peace at home. 

According to Manetho, King Bocchoris or Bo- 
kenranef stood alone in the twenty-fourth dynasty. 
The little told of him by the texts will be related 
in connectien with the twenty-fifth or Ethiopian 
dynasty. 

The Ethiopian sovereigns were descended from 
the priest-kings, who, when their power at Thebes 
was overthrown, had gone South into that land of 
Kush, which the older kings had so hardly won, 
but which now, when the Assyrians approached, 
was left to free itself, and only waited a strong 
leader to declare a new government. This was 






The Kingdom Divided. 207 

most opportune for the priests of Anion, who has- 
tened to place themselves at the head of the whole 
South. The northern boundary of their new king- 
dom was at Syene, and Mount Barkal (where a 
fortress had been built by Amenhotop III.) was 
chosen for the royal residence, and the capital city 
was called Napata, or the " City of the Holy 
Mountain." 

The old worship of Thebes was established here, 
together with the writing, divisions of time, and 
all the Theban manners and customs, and in the 
course of events their former home became their 
own — the old priests again ruled at Thebes, while 
Lower Egypt was ruled by the Assyrians, and 
Middle Egypt was a bone of contention between 
the two powers. Both governments embraced 
numbers of petty sovereignties, whose rulers paid 
tribute to the so-called great kings. 

The struggles between the two powers were un- 
ending, and sometimes even the capital cities fell 
into the hands of the dominating power. A cam- 
paign of more importance than usual occurred 
about B. c. 766, in which the Ethiopian king, Pian- 
khi, came off victorious over Middle and Lower 
Egypt. He set up a memorial tablet at Mount 
Barkal, where, not many years since, it was dis- 



208 Twenty-First Dynasty. 

covered. The inscription is long and very curious, 
and has been translated and published separately, 
by Canon Cook, of Exeter, England. The king 
who stood as the leader of the war against Piankhi, 
and the head of the satraps and princes of Lower 
Egypt, was named Tafnakhth. 

The inscription of Piankhi relates at great 
length how completely he reduced all his enemies, 
how humble they were before him, and how they 
brought to him their treasures, so that he sailed 
up the Nile with " ships laden with silver, gold, 
bronze, stuffs, and all the good things of Lower 
Egypt, with all the products of Phoenicia, with all 
the woods of the Holy Land." 

No record of the subsequent incidents remains, 
but it is certain that the fruits of this great con- 
quest were not long enjoyed by the Ethiopian 
kings. 

The son and successor of Piankhi, named Mia- 
mun Nut, lost all power in Lower Egypt, and 
made a campaign against that country in person, 
but the king of this portion of his dominions 
yielded his allegiance to King Nut, as soon as he 
appeared to claim it, and paid his tributes without 
bloodshed. 

Such unsatisfactory accounts as these already 



Kings of Sais. 209 

given, are a fair example of all that is known con- 
cerning these descendants of the priest Hir-hor — 
that first priest who aspired to be a king. Other 
information concerning them comes from the 
Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions, which only repeat 
more tales of wars between the Ethiopians and 
Assyrians. From these last-named inscriptions 
it appears that Bocchoris, whom Manetho called a 
Pharaoh of Sais, of the twenty-fourth dynasty, 
was, in truth, one of the petty sovereigns above 
mentioned. At length, the rival claims which had 
so long disturbed the land of the double crown, 
ever since the beginning of the reign of Hir-hor, a 
period of more than four centuries, were all merged 
in a single interest through the marriage of Psani- 
ethik I. (the first king of the dynasty of Sais, and 
the grandson of that Tafnakhth whom the Egyp- 
tians had conquered,) with the Ethiopian princess, 
Shep-en-apet, the great-grand-daughter of the con- 
queror of Piankhi. This union between the North 
and South restored peace to Egypt. 

Brugsch says of this period, " We are standing 
beside the open grave of the Egyptian kingdom, 
The array of kings, whose names are enrolled in 
these last dynasties — some of them natives and 
some foreigners — appear as the bearers of the old 



210 Twenty-First Dynasty. 

decaying corpse, whose last light of life flickered 
up once more in the Dynasty of Sais, only to go 
out soon and forever. The monuments become 
more and more silent, from generation to genera- 
tion, and from reign to reign. The ancient seats 
of splendor, Memphis and Thebes, have fallen into 
ruin, or, at ail events, are depopulated and deserted. 
Only the strong bulwark of the ' white citadel ' 
of Memphis serves as a refuge for the persecuted 
native kings and their warriors, in their times of 
need. The Persian satraps dwell in the old royal 
halls of the city. The whole people has grown 
feeble with age, disordered to the marrow, and ex- 
hausted by the lengthened struggle of the petty 
kings and the satraps of the mighty power of 
Assyria." 

Psamethik I. succeeded in overcoming great 
obstacles, and placed himself and his descendants 
on the throne of this broken Egypt as sole mon- 
archs of the entire kingdom. His name ma)' be 
traced upon the " speaking stones " from one end 
of Egypt to the other, but the glory was departed — 
the old gods of Egypt seem to have turned away 
in weariness and sorrow from the melancholy 
changes upon which they have looked. 

Neith, whose place of worship was at Sais, by 



Decline of Egypt. 



211 



the sea, (which now became the court city) was the 
last of the ancient deities to be reverenced, and 
her temple the last one to be maintained with any 
attempt at the ancient splendor. 
' From this time no connected history of Egypt can 




TOMBS OF THE KINGS OF THEBES. 



be given from its own monuments or papyri — it 
must be sought in the history of the other nations 
with whom it was involved : the Assyrians, Per- 
sians, Macedonians, Jews, Greeks and Romans. 
The government had never been such as to draw 



212 . Twenty-First Dynasty. 

out the love or command the devotion of the 
people, they were but abject slaves to each power 
in turn, only slaves once for all, and what differ- 
ence could it make as to the nationality of the 
master ? From this period there is on one hand 
more certainty and more doubt connected with 
what is told of Egypt. More certainty in some 
cases as to grand events, which are related in the 
histories of several nations, but more doubt as to 
minor matters chiefly related by curious foreign 
travellers, who neither understood the language 
nor comprehended the customs and modes of 
thought of the. Egyptians. 

There were six sovereigns of the twenty-sixth 
dynasty : 

Psamethik or Psameticus I. 

Neku or Necho. 

Psamethik or Psameticus II. 

Uahabra or Hophra. 

Aahmes or Amasis. 

Psamethik III. 

It endured from B. c. 666 to 527, when Camby- 
ses conquered the country and established the 
first Persian dynasty. 

Many of the monuments of this age are espe- 
cially beautiful, but show a change of style and 



Foreign Religions. 213 

tlie effect of foreign manner. The museums of 
Italy are rich in sculptures and statues belonging 
to this period. 

In the time of the first Psamethik some attempt 
was made to return to the traditions of the earlier 
days both in religion and art, and the term, Egyp- 
tian Renaissance, may be fitly used (in several 
senses) in describing this age. 

But the truth that one cannot touch pitch 
without defilement is here illustrated. Stronger 
fancies had crept in from the various peoples and 
religions which had been in contact with the sons 
of Kemi, and demons and genii and all sorts of 
fabulous creations look out from the stones once 
sacred to the great triads and their descendants 
only. In truth, the last Egyptian monarch, Nakht- 
nebef, appeared in the character of a magician and 
exorcist rather than as the " Son of the Sun ! " 

The Persians, Cambyses and Darius I., as well 
as some of the Ptolemies or Lagidae, continued the 
worship of the Apis-bull, and provided for the grand 
funerals of these sacred animals, and some of the 
Apis tablets furnish most important historic aid in 
the matter of fixing dates and so on. It is from 
these tablets that it appears beyond contradiction 
that Cambyses conquered in 527 rather than 525 



214 Twenty-First Dynasty. 

B. C, thus increasing the length of his reign to six 
years in place of the four years which has been 
generally accepted. The fact, recorded by the in- 
scription, that Cambyses prepared a burial-place 
for the Apis, and the representation upon the stone 
of that king as kneeling in worship of the sacred 
bull, is a strong refutation of the oft repeated tale 
of his having slain an Apis with his sword. 

When Cambyses came to the throne he found no 
difficulty in enlisting in his service those who had 
held prominent positions under his predecessors. 
One of these men, who had been the commander 
of the fleet under two preceding kings, served 
under Cambyses also. His name was Uza-hor-en- 
pi-ris, and his statue, now in the Vatican, bears an 
important inscription, besides being a beautiful 
specimen of the art of his time. He is represented 
in an upright position embracing a shrine which 
contains the mummy of Osiris. Under Cambyses, 
and later, under Darius, this man was the president 
of the physicians, and it is well known that the 
Persians placed a high estimate upon the services 
and the skill of the Egyptian physicians. The in- 
scription upon this statue represents this nobleman 
as speaking, and he presents Cambyses under quite 
a different character from that in which he ordina- 



Darius I. 215 

rily appears. He recounts how this king, after he 
had been instructed by Uza-hor-en-pi-ris, forbade 
all desecration of the temples of Sai's and restored 
the proper ceremonies of the religion of their gods, 
and replaced the sacred property of all the gods of 
Sais as it had been formerly. 

Darius I. (he also declares) provided for the in- 
struction of the scribes and the training of young 
priests, " because he knew that such a work was the 
best means of awakening to new life all that was 
falling into ruin, in order to uphold the name of all 
the gods, their temples, their revenues, and all the 
ordinances of their feasts forever." 

King Darius I., and probably Darius II., were 
the builders of the temple of El-Khargeh in the 
Great Oasis, at a city called Hib or Hibe in the 
texts, and Hibis bj the ancient writers. The dec- 
oration of this temple was carried on down to 
360 B.C. 

Darius I. also attempted to connect the Red Sea 
with the Nile by a canal. Several inscriptions, 
some in hieroglyphics and some in cuneiform charac- 
ters, makes this an undoubted fact. * 

It is said that Darius relinquished this bold 



* The great scholar, Jules Oppert, has fully translated the cune- 
iform inscriptions, and thus rendered to history a great service. 



216 Twenty-First Dynasty. 

project because he was assured that the level of 
the Red Sea was so high as to render it a dan- 
ger thus to bring its waters into Egypt. 

Xerxes I., who placed his brother as satrap over 
Egypt, was less esteemed than his predecessors had 
been, and as the Greeks had gained some victories 
over the Persians and weakened their power, the 
Egyptians took the opportunity to revolt, and after 
several attempts the Pharaohs once again gained 
the throne, which they retained during two dynas- 
ties, the twenty-ninth and thirtieth, which endured 
only about sixty years, and embraced the reigns of 
seven kings, as follows : 

Dynasty XXIX., of Mendes. 

Naif-an-rot or Nephorites I. 

Hagar or Akoris. 

Psa-mut or Psamuthis. 

Naif-an-rot or Nephorites II. 

Dynasty XXX. of Sebennytus. 

Nakht-hor-hib or Nectarebes. 

Zi-ho, Teos or Tachos. 

Nakht-neb-ef or Nectanebus. 

A granite sarcophagus, now at Berlin, is one of 
the authorities concerning the families of these 
last remnants of the mighty kings of the " double 
land." The monuments, however, are so silent 



Persian Kings. 



217 



concerning them, that it is almost as if they had 
never lived. 

The thirty-first dynasty was under three Per- 
sian kings. Ochus, Arses, and Darius III., the 
last of whom was overcome by Alexander the 
Great, who, B. c. 332, added Egypt to the list of 
his conquests. 




PYRAMID AT ASSUK IN NUBIA. 



CHAPTER VII. 

EGYPT UNDER THE PTOLEMIES. 

THE conquest of Egypt, by Alexander the 
Great, cannot be ranked as a great achieve- 
ment for that mighty warrior. 

The rule of the Persians had been odious to the 
Egyptians, and when it was known that Alexander 
had overthrown the power of Darius III., the 
Egyptians made little resistance to their new con- 
queror, and the city of Pelusium, the first point 
of his attack, was easily overcome. 

Leaving a garrison at Pelusium, Alexander 
commanded his fleet to join him at Memphis, to 
which city he made a triumphal march. At his 
approach, each town threw open its gates and 
yielded to him without a struggle. Near Heliopo- 

218 






Alexander the Great. 



219 



lis he crossed the river and entered Memphis 
without taking a life in its conquest, 

Memphis was held at that time by Mazseus, an 
officer under Darius, who not only surrendered the 
city, but also eight hundred talents in gold, and all 
the furniture and effects of the late sovereign, 

Alexander manifested deep wisdom in the 




AN EGYPTIAN GENTLEMAN FISHING. 

course which he followed in Egypt. He recog- 
nized the truth that the only hope of strengthening 
the weakened country, of which he had possessed 
himself, was by restoring its old religion and cus- 
toms, rather than by attempting the introduction 
of new ones. 



220 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

He was, for this reason, careful to observe the 
time-honored ceremonies in his coronation, to sacri- 
fice to the Apis-bull, and he determined to pay his 
devotions at a shrine of the great god Amon-ra. 
He also entertained and propitiated the Egyptians 
with games and music performed by the Greeks. 

Why Alexander went to the temple in the 
Oasis of Amnion rather than to the great temple 
at Thebes, is not known, but it is reasonable to 
suppose that the length of the journey to the more 
famous city and temple, and want of time to take 
it, must have given the other direction to his pil- 
grimage. 

The most important result of his visit and devo- 
tion to the shrine of Amon-ra, was, that he landed 
at Rbacotis, then a small village, but so ad- 
vantageously placed that the monarch determined 
to erect on its site the city which should control 
the land of Egypt, He immediately commanded 
the improvement of the harbor, and the laying out 
of a city, and soon that Alexandria arose which 
has since been so important in the history of Egypt 
and the world. 

The Oasis of Amnion, from which the salt of am- 
monia is named, was the most northerly of the 
three oases of the Libyan desert, and in its midst 



Alexander the Grreat. 221 

stood the temple of Amon-ra. Here the treasures 
of the merchant caravans were deposited while the 
weary camels were allowed to rest in this grateful 
valley, and the figure of the god had been adorned, 
by those who thus sought the protection of his 
sanctuary, with many precious jewels. 

Alexander tarried only long enough to pay his 
devotions, leave his gifts, and thus gain the right 
to be called the " Son of the Sun," and then re- 
turn to Memphis. 

During his absence his generals had established 
his authority in various parts of the country, and 
Alexander regulated the affairs of the government 
preparatory to leaving Egypt. He appointed two 
native judges, Doloaspis and Petisis, to administer 
the civil departments of the government ; he left 
the garrisons in the command of Greeks, and ap- 
pointed over all, two prefects, Apollonius over 
Libya and Cleomenes over Arabia. This last was 
a cunning and dishonest man, and in various ways 
disobeyed the orders of Alexander and departed 
from the policy that he had decided to pursue in 
the government of Egypt. 

In spite of this the people were much happier 
and more prosperous than they had been under 
the Assyrians or Persians. Alexander devised 



222 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

many ways of increasing his revenues and his 
power in his new possessions. He introduced col- 
onies of Samaritans into the Thebaid, who culti- 
vated the lands which had fallen into disuse dur- 
ing the decline of Upper Egypt, at the same time 
that they formed an element in the land favorable 
to the conqueror, in case of any rebellion against 
his rule. 

Alexander soon left Egypt, but not until he had 
made all possible provision for the building up of 
Alexandria. Some authorities even say that the 
king drew the plans with his own hand, at all 
events, he appointed the great architect, Dinocra- 
tes, who had superintended the building of the 
temple of Diana at Ephesus, to be the builder of 
the city of Alexandria. 

Alexander did not live to see the pride of the 
city he had founded. He died at Babylon, eight 
years later, and was followed in the government of 
Egypt by the Ptolemies, or the family of the Lag- 
idse. 

Ptolemy Soter, or " the Preserver," the first of 
this line of sovereigns, was said to be the half- 
brother of Alexander the Great, or the son of Philip 
and Arsinoe, who was married to Lagus, a Mace- 
donian of humble position. At all events, Philip, 



Ptolemy Soter. 223 

before his death, advanced Ptolemy to positions of 
trust, and he also served as a general under Alex- 
ander. After the death of the great conqueror 
there was much trouble concerning the division of 
his kingdom, all of which will not be recounted 
here. Suffice it to say that after first serving as 
the governor, Ptolemy was finally the king of 
Egypt. 

When he assumed the government as the repre- 
sentative of Philip Arridseus, (the half-brother 
and successor of Alexander the Great), one of his 
first acts was to put Cleomenes to death. 

It is said that a prophecy had declared that the 
city which should be the burial-place of Alexander, 
should rise to be the seat of power and of the 
government of all his vast conquests. This gave 
rise to a rivalry among all the cities which had 
any claim to this honor. 

Perdiccas, the former general, who had become 
the regent of the kingdom of the minor sovereign, 
commanded that the body should be conveyed to 
iEga, in Macedonia. But Ptolemy persuaded the 
general Arridseus, who had charge of the funeral 
train, to allow the body to rest in the temple of 
Jupiter Amnion, in the Great Oasis, where Alex- 
ander had made his vows in person. 



224 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

Therefore, when, more than two years after the 
death of Alexander, the funeral cortege reached 
Syria, Ptolemy met it with an army and bore the 
much coveted remains to Memphis, where he re- 
tained them until a fitting tomb could be erected 
in Alexandria. 

Perdiccas, acting as regent for the two young 
princes (Philip Arridseus, who was unequal to the 
care of the government, and Alexander ^Egus, the 
posthumous son of Alexander the Great,) now 
thought it time to check the course of Ptolemy, 
in whom he saw the desire and ability to grasp the 
whole power and make himself an independent 
ruler. He therefore advanced from Egypt with 
the Macedonian army ; Ptolemy met him at Pelu- 
siuin and forced him to retire ; in short, the whole 
campaign was disastrous to Perdiccas, who was 
finally killed by one of his own soldiers. Before 
his death such discontent had arisen in all ranks 
of his army that the supplies sent them by the far- 
seeing Ptolemy were accepted and hostilities 
ceased. 

Both the young princes had fallen into the keep- 
ing of Ptolemy, and he must have been tempted 
to retain them, and thus be master of all by right, 
as their guardian. 



Ptolemy L 225 

But he had other plans, and recommended to the 
Macedonians that they should appoint as regents 
two generals, Python, who, under Alexander, had 
held the same rank as Perdiccas, and that Arri- 
daeus who had consigned to him the remains of 
Alexander. This advice was acted upon, but in 
reality the control of Macedonia was the only 
power that was left to these regents, for, as soon 
as possible, Ptolemy conquered Coele-Syria and 
Phoenicia, overcoming Jerusalem, and thus making 
himself master of all the coast-country between 
Cyrene and Antioch, twelve hundred miles in 
extent. It was now possible to make Egypt felt 
as a naval power, for the forests of Lebanon and 
Anti-Lebanon were of her possessions, and the 
Egypt with this command of timber and seaports 
was a very different country from the ancient 
Egypt, of which Thebes was the centre, and the 
Nile the only scene of its navigation. 

It is not necessary to recount all the vicissitudes 
of conquest and re-conquest which attended upon 
the efforts of Ptolemy to bring Egypt into the 
foremost rank as a naval power. He finally pos- 
sessed himself of Palestine, Phoenicia, Coele-Sj^ria, 
and the Island of Cyprus, the last being of great 
value on account of its large and safe harbors. 



226 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

Alexander had said that whoever held Cyprus 
held command of the seas. The exact date of 
the first conquest of this island by Ptolemy is not 
known, but he appointed a governor and banished 
the former rulers, and gained final and absolute 
possession of it b. c. 294 or 293, from which time it 
remained an Egyptian province. 

At times Ptolemy had control of Cilicia, Caria 
and Pamphylia, and even of the important cities 
of Corinth and Sicyon in Greece ; but he never 
allowed himself to be so involved in foreign wars 
as to weaken himself at home. 

Ptolemy Soter was most certainly ambitious, 
but he knew whereto direct his ambition, and how 
to limit it with wisdom. 

After the attack by Perdiccas, p>. c. 306, as related 
above, he was assailed by Demetrius and Anti- 
gonous, B. a 306, and was threatened again by 
Lysimachus and Seleucus. 

In the early part of his reign Ptolemy had estab- 
lished his power over Cyrene, but B.C. 313 a revolt 
occurred there, which was not ended until five 
years later, when Ptolemj^ fully occupied the coun- 
try and made his son Magas governor there. 

In truth, however, the most important features 
of the reign of this first Ptolemy, were the build- 



Alexandria. 227 

ing of Alexandria, and the founding of its institu- 
tions. This king was fond of learning, and wrote 
a history of the wars of Alexander ; the book is 
now unknown, but Arrian praised it heartily. 

Ptolemy founded a great library at Alexandria 
and connected it with his own palace ; he encour- 
aged learned men to make this city their home ; 
his college became so famous that Alexandria 
has been called the " University of the East ; " 
and though it was too late to make Egypt the 
home of the best Greek art, yet, an appreciation of 
it, and great attainments in science and literature, 
made a fame more enduring for Alexandria than 
that which rose from its possession of the last of 
the Seven Wonders of the World, which the Pharos 
was reckoned to be. 

The " Museum," as the University was called, 
comprised rooms for the Professors, a common clin- 
ing-hall, a corridor for exercise, a theatre for spec- 
tacles and disputations, a botanical garden and a 
menagerie. No modern academy can claim to 
have done more for learning than was done there. 
The courses of study were four in number, viz. : 
Poetry, which included Criticism, Mathematics, 
Astronomy and Medicine. The names of the 
learned men who were contemporaneous with the 



228 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 






Lagidse are such as would immortalize any age ; in 
art, Apelles and Antiphilus, who executed many 
pictures for the court of the Ptolemies ; Euclid and 
Apollonius of Perga in mathematics ; Hipparchus 
in astronomy ; Manetho in history ; Eratosthenes 
in chronology and geography ; Philetas, Callima- 
chus and Apollonius of Rhodes in poetry ; Aristo- 
phanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus in criticism, 
besides many others who made their era one to be 
remembered for all time. 

While Egypt derived so many benefits from the 
scholarship and culture of Greece, she conferred a 
boon in return, by the knowledge of papyrus and 
its uses, the value of which could not be estimated. 

From his scholarly tastes it may be justly in- 
ferred that the Library and Museum were the two 
things most dear to Ptolemy Soter, but he did not 
forget to do many other noble works, such as the 
Heptastadium or causeway which connected the 
Island of Pharos with the shore ; the temple of Nep- 
tune ; the royal palace ; the Mausoleum of the 
kings, called u the Soma;" the Hippodrome or 
race course ; and the temple of Serapis, which was 
unfinished at the time of his death. He also re- 
built the inner chamber of the great temple at Kar- 



Ptolemy L 231 

nak, besides many smaller, but very useful works 
not here mentioned. 

The character of Ptolemy Soter stands out from 
that of his age in bright relief. He was simple in 
his mode of life, brave and generous in war, and 
faithful to his plighted word. He gained the love 
and respect of the Egyptians by his forbearance, 
and the Thebans, who were fast losing their an- 
cient prestige, were perhaps more ready to submit 
to a stranger than to a native of Lower Egypt. 

In his domestic life this king Avas most unfortu- 
nate. He first married a Persian princess, who 
seems to have borne no children ; his second wife, 
Eurydice, was the mother of Ptolemy Ceraunus, 
" the Thunderer," and several other children ; and 
his third wife was Berenice, whose son, Ptolemy, 
(Philadelphus) was chosen by Ptolemy Soter as 
his successor, and was associated in the govern- 
ment two years before the death of the old king, 
who died B. c. 283, aged eighty-four years. Ptol- 
emy put away Eurydice in order to marry Berenice, 
and his choice of the younger son, to the exclusion 
of the elder, made Ceraunus so bitter an enemy of 
his family that he engaged in intrigues which ended 
in bloodshed. This preference of the younger 
son has been attributed to the influence of Bere- 



232 Egypt under the Ptolemies, 

nice over her husband in his dotage. It was the 
picture of this queen that the poet of Samos, 
Asclepiades, mistook for that of Venus, and conse- 
quently wrote : 

44 This form is Cytherea's ; nay 

'Tis Berenice's, I protest : 
So like to both, you safely may 

Give it to either you like best." 

Ptolemy Philaclelphus was but twenty-six years 
old when his father died, and being already in 
power no disturbance occurred, and few sovereigns 
have commenced their reigns with brighter pros- 
pects than opened before him. The long reign of 
his father had brought the whole country of Egypt 
into a flourishing and firm position. Alexandria 
had the largest commerce of any city in the world, 
besides being one of the special seats of art and 
learning. 

Though not a great soldier, Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus succeeded fairly in the three wars in which 
he was engaged ; the Macedonian, Cyrenaean, and 
Syrian. However, two of his enemies, Magas and 
Antiochus II., were largely influenced by mar- 
riages which reconciled their interests ; the first 
became the father-in-law of the' son of Ptolemy, 
and the second became the son-in-law of the king. 



Founding New Cities. 233 

The public works of this reign were of great 
importance. The light-house on the Island of 
Pharos was completed ; the canal between the 
Nile and the Red Sea was perfected, and the city 
of Arsinoe built on the present site of the city of 
Suez. Plotemy Philadelphus also built two other 
seaport cities, both called by the name of 
Berenice, both on the east of Africa, but separated 
by eleven degrees of latitude ; the second was 
called the Troglodytic Berenice. From the most 
northerly of these cities he built a road to Coptos, 
over which the merchants passed for centuries 
with their caravans, laden with the products of 
India, Arabia and Ethiopia, which thus found their 
way into Europe and established a great commerce. 

The new city of Ptolemais in the Thebaid was 
the chief emporium of the Ethiopian trade, which 
consisted largely in ivory; elephants were also 
brought there alive, and were used in the service 
of the army. 

The revenues of this king, chiefly from customs, 
are said to have been more than three and a half 
millions of pounds sterling, besides tributes of 
grain and other products. But his army and navy 
must have exhausted immense sums, since they 
are estimated at two hundred thousand foot sol- 



234 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

diers and forty thousand horse, with chariots and 
elephants in addition, and fifteen thousand ves- 
sels, and one thousand transports with more than 
five hundred and fifty thousand rowers. 

However, the principal, lasting fame of this Ptol- 
emy, like that of his father, rests upon what he 
did for letters. He added immensely to the Library 
of Alexandria. Learned men found a Paradise at 
his court. There Manetho wrote, and there under 
the patronage of the king, the translation of the 
Hebrew Scriptures into Greek was begun. He 
also added much to the adornments of the capital, 
architecturally, and by ornamental works of art. 
The temple of Serapis, mentioned before, was, 
when completed, the largest building in Alexandria. 
It was built upon an artificial mound, raised one 
hundred steps above the rest of the city ; it Avas 
very beautiful within, while the porticos with 
which it was surrounded added much to its out- 
Avard effect. It was built to receiA^e the statue 
brought from Sinope, a city of Pontus, by Ptol- 
emy I. Serapis, Avhose worship became so popular, 
and Avas later followed at Rome, Avas sought out 
b}^ Ptolemy on account of a dream in Avhich he 
saAV the god, and was commanded to remove it to 
another place. The character of this deity has 



Worship of Serapis. 237 

never been satisfactorily established, since the 
different nations who worshipped him gave him 
different attributes. But it is certain that he was 
a Greek, not an Egyptian deity, and as his temple 
was an abomination to the native Egyptians, it 
was placed outside, frequently near the burial- 
places of the old Egyptian cities, as that of Mem- 
phis was near the tombs of the Apis-bulls. It is 
said that under the Ptolemies and Romans forty- 
two temples were erected to this god in Egypt. 

The characteristics attributed to Serapis were 
those of Osiris and Apis in conjunction, his infernal 
character made his likeness to Osiris, who was 
called the judge of the dead and the ruler of 
Hades. Again, Serapis was likened to iEsculapius, 
and again to the Sun. 

His worship was abolished by the Roman senate 
on account of its licentiousness. A temple of 
Serapis is one of the most interesting of the ruins 
at Pozzuoli, near Naples. The temples of this 
god were oracular, and his votaries consulted him 
by sleeping and dreaming in them. 

He is represented with the attributes of a Cer- 
berus, a dragon or a snake. His head or figure, 
engraved on certain stones, was thought to possess 



238 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

mystic charms, and representations of him are 
common in museums. 

It should be remembered that the beautiful 
temple of Philae, dedicated to Isis, was commenced 
in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. No more 
lovely spot than Philse exists in Egypt. The 
statues originally here were all intended for repre- 
sentations of Arsinoe, the sister whom Ptolemy II. 
made his queen, and on whose account he was 
called Philadelphus or " the sister-loving." 

The priests who lived in this temple were never 
allowed to leave the island, and none but priests 
were permitted to set foot upon the sacred spot. 
This is the most ancient monastic life of which 
history speaks, and these monks mortified them- 
selves by chastisement, and even by cutting them- 
selves with knives. 

The character of Philadelphus was most cruel 
and unlovely. His slaughter of four thousand 
Gauls, who served him as soldiers, and whom he 
distrusted, fades into insignificance before his 
murder of his two brothers and his incestuous 
marriage with Arsinoe, who had before been the 
wife of his half-brother, Ptolemy Ceraunus. He 
was tenderly attached to this queen, and erected 
the Arsinoeum at Alexandria, as a magnificent 




PORTICO OF TKMPLE AT PHXL.E. 



Ptolemy III. 241 

monument to her memory. The coins which bear 
the images of this king and queen are beautiful 
and numerous. Philadelphus died, B. c. 247, at the 
age of sixty-two, after a sole reign of thirty-six 
years. 

Arsinoe bore no children to Philadelphus, and he 
was succeeded by Ptolemy Euergetes, or Ptolemy 
III., a son of Philadelpuhs by his first queen, 
Arsinoe, who was a daughter of Lysimachus, and 
was banished to Upper Egypt when Philadelphus 
wished to make his sister his queen. 

Euergetes or "the Benefactor," was the most 
ambitious of his family in enlarging his kingdom. 
His prosperity was such that he hesitated not to 
act on the offensive, and during his reign the 
Egyptian empire reached its greatest extent. In 
his Syrian war, Rome, with which republic Phila- 
delphus had made a treaty of friendship, offered 
him assistance, which he declined. 

This Ptolemy also did much for art and letters, 
and while he added few new buildings to Alexan- 
dria, he built a new temple at Esneh, rebuilt one 
at Canopus, and made large additions to the great 
temple at Thebes. During his wars he recovered 
many of the images of the Egyptian gods which 
had been borne away by former conquerors, these 



242 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

he restored to their original places, and thus won 
much favor in his empire. 

It is probable that Egypt reached her highest 
prosperity during the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, 
and with his death, B. c. 222, her decline began. 
He married Berenice, the daughter of Magas, who 
bore him three children. 

The time of the first three Ptolemies extended 
over one hundred and one years, a brilliant period, 
under the leadership of comparatively good men, 
for of the nine Ptolemies who followed, six were 
detestably vile, two contemptibly weak, and but 
one, Philometor, had any claims to respect. 

Ptolemy IV. was strongly suspected of having 
taken the life of his father, and it is believed that 
he chose the title of Philopator as a denial to these 
suspicions. Whether he killed his father or no, he 
made haste when once in power to murder his 
mother, his brother Magas, and his uncle Lysima- 
chus. He only reserved the same fate for his sis- 
ter, Arsinoe, until she should be his wife and the 
mother of his son, when her murder was added to 
his crimes, and he gave himself up to a licentious 
life. 

The command of the government was left to 
Sosibus, who successfully conducted the war with 




HYPOSTYLE HALL, KARNAK, 



Ptolemy K 245 

Antioclius III., of Syria, and was afterwards har- 
assed by the intrigues of Agathocles, and a revolt 
of the native Egyptians. 

Although Philopator was so vile a wretch, he in 
some measure maintained the traditions of his 
family. He especially favored Aristarchus, the 
grammarian, and so admired Homer that he built 
a temple in his honor. He also took time, at some 
period of his life, to compose poems and tragedies, 
which last style of composition one would judge 
him to be well prepared for. 

Philopator died B. c. 205, aged forty years, 
leaving his son, Ptolemy V. or Epiphanes, as his 
successor. The boy was but five years old, and 
the infamous Agathocles made himself regent, but 
was so hated by the people that he was put to 
death, together with his mother and sister, and 
their vile supporters in the villanies they had per- 
petrated. 

Next Sosibus, son of the minister of the same 
name mentioned above, held the regency, but the 
people were so demoralized that the country seemed 
likely to fall under the power of some new foreign 
conqueror, when the Egyptian rulers asked protec- 
tion from Rome, and M. Lepidus was sent by the 
Roman senate to act as guardian to the young 



246 



Egypt under the Ptolemies. 



Ptolemy. Lepiclus was succeeded as regent by 
the general Scopas, and later the wise Aristomenes 
was at the head of the government. At length, 
when Epiphanes was but fourteen years old, he 
was crowned as king, and left to rule as best he 



^^yrg*VTc^ :v ^3:- /. v WfrF* ^Tig^T^ ^S^y^-j/ rilfiffF7 7,\ 





PORTICO AND TEMPLE AT ESN EH. 



could. Few facts are known of his reign, but it is 
certain that all the foreign conquests of the Ptole- 
mies were lost, except Cyprus and Cyrenaica ; the 
power thus weakened was never regained. 

The decree inscribed upon the famous Rosetta 
stone, which has been of inestimable value in our 
day, was issued upon the occasion of the coronation 
of Ptolemy Epiphanes, B. c. 196. 



Ptolemy Philometor. 247 

This king was married to Cleopatra, daughter of 
Antiochus the Great, by whom he had three chil- 
dren. He died from poison Avhen but twenty-nine 
years old. He left a demoralized army, an un- 
manned navy and an empty treasury, over which his 
son, Ptolemy Philometor, was declared king at the 
age of seven years. His mother was a woman of 
strong character, and during her regency of eight 
years, she was vigorous and successful in her ad- 
ministration of the government. 

After her death Philometor was led into a war 
against Antiochus, when, but for the aid of the 
Romans, all Egypt would have been lost. The 
rise of the Roman power in Egypt may be dated 
from this time. The affairs of Egypt were now dis- 
cussed in the Roman senate, and the decisions of 
that body, though not always final, were of great 
importance. 

In the year B. c. 169 the younger brother of 
Philometor, who called himself Euergetes II., but 
is better known as Physcon, " the bloated," was 
associated in the government. After four years 
dissensions arose, and Physcon obtained the power 
while Philometor went to Rome to seek aid. Af- 
ter much discussion a division of the territory and 
the power was made, and through the offices of the 



248 



Egypt under the Ptolemies. 



Roman deputies peace was restored between the 
brothers. Libya and Cyrene were allotted to 
Physcon, but after a few years his restless ambition 
drove him to Rome to demand further power. 
The senate added Cyprus to his territory and 
seemed to look for implicit obedience from Philo- 
metor, but he refused to concur in their arrange- 
ments, and when at last all preparations were 
made, and Physcon appeared ready for battle, 
Philometor was victorious and took Physcon pris- 
oner, and showed great forbearance in sparing his 
life, and restoring to him the government of 
Cyrene. 

At length Philometor was killed in a battle 
against the Syrians, which was fought near Antioch 
b. c. 146. 

The wife of Philometor, Cleopatra, was his full 
sister, and bore him three children; a son who 
took the name of Eupator and two daughters, 
both named Cleopatra ; one of whom became the 
wife of Demetrius II., of Syria, while the other 
remained unmarried. 

The Ptolemies were now much less esteemed by 
the Egyptians than the first kings of their race had 
been. The policy of Ptolemy Soter and Plriladel- 
phus, who had regarded the customs of the country* 



Euergetes II. 249 

and had in many ways consulted the prejudices of 
of the Egyptians, was forgotten. In the time of 
Philometor acts were perpetrated and allowed, 
which greatly incensed the Egyptians and engen- 
dered bitter hatred of the royal family. At this 
period, too, there was a marked decline in the liter- 
ature of Alexandria. Criticism, such as that of 
Aristarchus, took the place of composition, and 
Hipparchus, the mathematical astronomer, was the 
most important scholar of his time. 

The death of Philometor was followed by serious 
disturbances in Egypt. His son, Ptolemy VII., 
called Eupator, was declared king, but the Romans 
interfered and placed Physcon or Euergetes II. on 
the throne, and stipulated that he should marry 
the widow of Philometor. This he did, and his 
first act was the murder of Eupator, the son of his 
bride. 

His cruelty was such, and his revenge upon 
those who had not favored him so dreadful, that 
nearly all the foreigners, especially the literary 
men, fled from Alexandria, and the depopulation 
was so great that this tyrant was forced to ask new 
colonists to settle in his capital. Cleopatra bore 
a son, who was called Memphitis, as a compliment 
to Memphis. After this the king repudiated the 



250 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

mother and took her daughter, also called Cleo- 
patra, for his wife. The murder of Eupator and 
the repudiation of the queen, greatly incensed the 
Romans against Physcon, and his cruelties became 
so unendurable that a revolt broke out and he was 
forced to fly to Cyprus. By this time his mode of 
life had induced extreme corpulency, and he could 
not walk. After the flight of the king, his first 
queen, the widow of Philometor, was placed upon 
the throne and a Avar ensued between Physcon and 
herself, by which she was forced to appeal to the 
Syrians for aid. Here she made a grave mistake, 
for the Egyptian pride so revolted against asking a 
favor from their Syrian enemy, and the danger of 
falling into Syrian power was so much feared, that 
a revolt followed. Cleopatra was forsaken, and 
took refuge in Syria, while Physcon was reinstated 
in power. 

It was in the beginning of this war between 
Cleopatra and Physcon that this monstrous father 
had slain his own son, Memphitis, and had sent 
the head and hands of the murdered boy to his 
mother. 

After Physcon's return to the throne, fewer 
crimes are attributed to him, indeed, he is said to 
have become an author, and to have encouraged let- 



Use of Parchment. 251 

ters. The scholars who had fled from Alexandria 
had settled in various cities and were shedding the 
glory which had been so long peculiar to that city 
upon many other places. Pergamus appeared as a 
growing rival in the size of her library, and about 
this time the use of parchment was introduced, on 
account of a law made by Physcon forbidding the 
export of papyrus, as by this means he hoped to 
prevent book making, and the enlargement of the 
library at Pergamus. From that time date two 
words, now in the English language : parchment, 
from Pergamus, and paper, from Papyrus. 

Physcon died B. c. 117, and his eldest son, Ptol- 
emy IX., called Lathyrus succeeded him in Egypt, 
while Apion, his natural son, received the kingdom 
of Cyrene, as a bequest from his father. Apion, 
realizing his danger from the nations surrounding 
him, made a league with the Romans, who promised 
to protect him while he lived, upon the condition 
that his kingdom should belong to Rome after his 
death. Thus he ensured himself a quiet and 
prosperous reign which endured twenty years, at 
the end of which he died, and Cyrene passed from 
the grasp of the Egyptians forever, and became a 
Roman province. 

The reign of Lathyrus lasted thirty-six years, 



252 



Egypt under the Ptolemies. 



but during that time the kingdom was divided by- 
political storms, and he often ruled Cyprus alone. 
During the first ten years, his mother, Cleopatra 
Cocce, was in truth the ruler, while Lathyrus was 
called king of Egypt, and her younger son, Alexan- 
der, called Ptolemy Alexander, reigned in Cyprus. 
At the end of this time, Cleopatra, who was almost 
the worst member of her wicked family, became 
enraged against Lathyrus on account of his kind- 
ness to the Samaritans, who were the enemies of 
her allies, the Jews. She first raised a revolt 
against Lathyrus in Alexandria, then took Selene, 
his wife from him, and finally banished him to 
Cyprus, and placed Alexander on the throne. 

Lathyrus remained eighteen years in Cyprus, 
while his mother and Ptolemy Alexander ruled 
together in Egypt. Meantime, Lathyrus success- 
fully defended himself against the attempts of his 
mother to dispossess him of his power. He also 
gave aid to the Syrians, and at last, when Cleo- 
patra Cocce and Ptolemy Alexander quarrelled, 
and the son murdered his mother, Lathyrus was re- 
called and became sole monarch of Egypt, as Alex- 
ander had been forced to flee, and had gone to 
Lycia. 

Lathyrus was not long at peace, for Alexander 







ERMEUT, OR HERMOXTHIS, NEAR THEBES. 



Destruction of Thebes. 255 

attempted to re-establish himself in Cyprus ; he 
did not succeed, and fell in battle. Then a revolt 
broke out in Upper Egypt, and Thebes held out 
three years against a siege before it was overcome 
and laid in ruins, never again to resume its place 
among the cities of the East. 

After the reduction of Thebes, Egypt was tran- 
quil while Lathyrus lived, and he was of some 
account as an ally of the Greeks, Egypt being at 
this time the only country west of Persia that had 
not submitted to the power of the Romans. 

Lathyrus died, B. c. 81, and left but one legiti- 
mate child, a daughter, called Berenice. She 
ascended the throne and reigned alone six months, 
when she married her cousin, Ptolemy Alexander 
II., who claimed the throne of Egypt, and was sup- 
ported by the Romans. It was understood that 
the queen should share the government with Alex- 
ander, but three weeks after the marriage she was 
murdered by her husband, who fell in his turn, the 
victim of the fury of the Alexandrians, who slew 
him in the public gymnasium. 

Fifteen 3^ears of contention for the power, and 
great disorder, followed this tragedy, and this 
period of Egyptian history requires a separate 
volume to make it clear or do it justice, and no 



256 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

account will here be given of the ups and downs 
of Auletes, i; the Flute-player," the illegitimate 
son of Lathyrus, who at length attained the power, 
B.C. 65, and whose reign is ordinarily reckoned 
from B. C. 80, at which time his struggle for the 
throne began, though he was not recognized by the 
Romans until b. c. 59, when Julius Caesar was 
made Consul. 

The life of Auletes, his revels and his debauch- 
ery, so disgusted the Alexandrians, that when 
he increased the taxes, a rebellion arose and he 
was driven into exile, and his daughters, Tryphaena 
and Berenice, were placed on the throne. The 
former soon died, but Berenice continued to reign 
until Pompey sent a strong force to Egypt under 
Gabinius for the purpose of reinstating Auletes. 

After the return of the king his first act was to 
murder Berenice, because she had resisted his 
authority and attempted to retain her position as 
queen. 

By the aid of the Romans Auletes reigned until 
B.C. 51. and may be credited with having done all 
in his power to merit the hatred of his subjects 
and to degrade his country. 

Auletes was the father of the last and most 
famous Cleopatra, and he left the kingdom to her 



Cleopatra. 257 

and her brother Ptolemy, upon the condition that 
t\\Qj should many, and rule together. When 
Auletes died Cleopatra was seventeen years old, 
and Ptolemy four years younger ; they had another 
brother, also called Ptolemy, and a sister, Arsinoe, 
both of whom were quite young children. 

Cleopatra was very beautiful, and even at the 
age of fifteen made an impression upon Antony, 
who accompanied Gabinius to Egypt. She had a 
spirit which brooked no control, and soon quarrelled 
with her brother, and made herself so disliked 
by the Egyptians that she was driven to seek 
safety in Syria, where she attempted to raise an 
army of allies, who would replace her in her author- 
ity. But Caesar arrived in Egypt and undertook 
to arrange a peace between Cleopatra and her 
brother. She had heard of Caesar's susceptibility 
to such charms as hers, and by some intrigue she 
met him and made him her slave. In order to 
replace her on the throne the Roman fought bravely, 
and in the course of the ensuing war Ptolemy was 
killed — it is said that he was drowned in the 
Nile. 

By the efforts of her lover she was again a queen 
and ruled with absolute authority while he re- 
mained near her, although, with the motive of pro- 



258 Egypt under the Ptolemies. 

pitiating the Egj^ptians, lie had her nominally 
married to her younger brother. 

When Caesar was forced to go to Rome she fol- 
lowed him with her so-called husband, and the 
Romans were much scandalized at the open con- 
nexion between Caesar and the queen, for she 
lived in apartments in his house and he loaded her 
with honors. She bore him a son called Caesarion, 
who was later put to death by Augustus. 

After the death of Caesar, B. c. 44, Cleopatra 
returned to Egypt and passed through a stormy 
period of warfare, until Antony was sent to Asia 
Minor, B. c. 41. He soon yielded his implicit alle- 
giance to her, and one of her first deeds under his 
protection was the murder of her sister, Arsinoe, 
who had once preferred a claim to the throne. To 
this she swiftly added other murders, tearing her 
victims from the sanctuary of the temples in order 
to slay them, for so blind was Antony to her faults, 
that he regarded neither religion or any voice of 
pity where her wishes were at stake. When 
Antony was with her in Egypt, she gained such 
power over him, that though he returned to Rome 
and married Octavia, and was later engaged in 
the Parthian expedition, he yet returned to " that 
accursed Egyptian," as Augustus called her. 



Cleopatra. 261 

Augustus so excited the Romans to hatred of 
Antony that at length a war was declared against 
Cleopatra. We will not follow the course of the 
struggle. Suffice it to say that when she believed 
the cause of Antony weak, and saw that Augustus 
must triumph, she turned traitor to the former, 
and tried to use her charms upon the latter. But 
her course was run, and at length, when Antony 
was dead, she preferred to take her own life rather 
than to be carried to Rome to grace a triumph in 
the Eternal City. 

'• This mortal house I'll ruin, 
Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I 
Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court, 
Nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye 
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up, 
And show me to the shouting varletry 
Of censuring Rome ? Rather a ditch in Egypt 
Be gentle grave to me ! rather on Nilus* mud 
Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies 
Blow me into abhorring ! rather make 
My country's high pyramids my gibbet, 
And hang me up in chains." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EGYPT AS A ROMAN PROVINCE, FROM B. 0. 30 TO 
A. D. 450. 



WHILE Egypt re- 
mained a prov- 
ince of Rome it was 
governed by a Roman 
prefect or governor, of 
the equestrian rank, and 
during that time the 
history of Egypt is so 
much involved in that 
of Rome, that in a sense, 
the history of the latter 
is that of the former, 
and here an outline only 
will be given, filled in 
with the most important 
occurrences which essentially concerned Egypt. 
Under the Emperor Augustus (as Octavianus 

202 




Sarcophagus with the goddess Nut on the breast. 






Augustus. 263 

called himself after he camQ to the throne) the 
governor of Egypt was responsible to him alone ; 
not even the Roman senate had a right to interfere 
in the government of this province, and under the 
governor all offices of importance were given to 
Romans, native Egyptians receiving onty the most 
subordinate places, being treated essentially as 
slaves, and raised only to the rank of the emperor's 
freedmen. 

Augustus pursued a very different course in his 
government of the Egyptians from that followed 
by Alexander the Great. Instead of adapting 
himself and his laws to their customs as far as was 
practicable, he studied how to degrade and wound 
them. He refused to visit the Apis-bull ; he 
founded a new city, called Nicopolis, on the spot 
where he had conquered Antony, and made him- 
self master of Egypt, and to this new and strange 
place he removed the sacrifices and the priesthood 
of Alexandria. Finally, when he left Egypt to 
return to Rome, he carried with him an immense 
amount of movable treasures, precious metals, 
ornaments, rare articles of all sorts, the double 
crown of Egypt, works of art, and in due time the 
two obelisks were removed to the Eternal City, 



264 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

which stand on Monte Citorio and in the Piazza 
del Popolo. 

At Rome he graced his triumph with these spoils, 
which were drawn on wagons, while the two chil- 
dren of Antony and Cleopatra were led in the pro- 
cession, loaded with chains, rejoicing, no doubt to 
remember that their mother had preferred death 
before tins humiliation. 

While in Egypt, Augustus introduced the reck- 
oning of time by the so-called Julian year. The 
imperfectness of that reckoning was exposed and 
remedied by Gregory XIIL, but the astronomers 
of Egypt were so learned in their science that 
they distrusted it from the first, and never used it ; 
the result was that three kinds of years were in use 
in Egypt, viz. : the old form, with the first day of the 
year on or about July 18th ; the Julian year 
beginning the 29th of August, and the astronomer's 
year, which was movable. 

Early in the new reign in Egypt the old canals 
were cleared and the new Nilometer built at Ele- 
phantine, and these works were of great value to 
the Egyptians as well as to their masters, since so 
much more country was covered by the Nile over- 
flow, and the crops largely increased. 

It was with the third Roman governor, JElius 



Egyptian Grods at Home. 265 

Gallus, that Strabo made his journey up the Nile, 
of which he wrote a most entertaining and instruc- 
tive account. It requires the largest exercise of 
the imagination before one can believe that the 
wonderful Alexandria which he saw from the top of 
the temple of Pan, or the flourishing vineyards 
which produced the fruit from which the Mareotic 
wine was made, could have existed where the 
unattractive modern city and the desolate Egypt of 
to-day now lies. 

The treasures borne to Rome were not the only 
reminders of Egypt to be found there. Many 
religious opinions and customs were carried home 
by the Roman officers and soldiers, and at length 
even the beggars on the banks of the Tiber asked 
alms in the name of Osiris. The Egyptian belief 
in the immortality of the soul, the rewards of 
good and evil at the judgment day, and many 
other like points, were most welcome to men, who, 
like the Greeks and Romans, could be said to have 
no faith, and the worship of Isis and Serapis so 
gained among the Italians, that Augustus made a 
law, forbidding under pain of severe penalties the 
use of any Egyptian ceremonies in his kingdom. 

The change from the rule of Augustus to that of 
Tiberius was not perceptible in Egypt, and under 



266 



Egypt as a Roman Province. 



the latter many improvements were made. The 
temple of Sebaste or Caesar's temple, was completed, 
and two obelisks were removed from Heliopolis, 
and set up in front of this building, in honor of 
Tiberius, and called Cleopatra's needles. One of 
these obelisks was presented to the British nation 
by Mehemet Ali ; the other is soon to be erected 
in New York, and is a gift to America from the 
late Khedive. It is a monolith of red granite of 
Syene, seventy feet in height ; it is covered with 
hieroglyphics, and bears the cartouch of Thotmes 
III. 

The Sebaste was the loftiest building in ancient 
Alexandria. It had a library, and was ornamented 
with many works of art ; it was surrounded by 
porticos, and stood in the midst of a sacred grove, 
near the harbor, so that it was one of the most 
impressive objects of the city as approached from 
the sea. 

During the reign of Tiberius the great portico 
was added to the temple of Denderah. The archi- 
tecture of this portico is imposing and grand in 
style, like that of the older Egyptian structures, 
but the sculptures are much inferior to those of 
ealier artists. Much speculation has been expend- 
ed upon a curious zodiac upon the ceiling which 




«;»5ii (lifel 



ilSlill 



Persecution of Jews. 269 

apparently embraces Egyptian, Babylonish and 
Roman elements in its plan. 

Under the Ptolemies there had been much dis- 
turbance in Egypt concerning the Jews, but at 
last many privileges had been granted them, and at 
the time of the Roman conquest about one-third 
of the Alexandrian population was Jewish. Liv- 
ing as they had, in the midst of Greeks and Egyp- 
tians, some of their customs had been modified, but 
they were never treated as equals by the other 
races, although Caesar had declared them citizens 
and engraved his decree upon a pillar in a public 
place. 

Upon the accession of Caius or Caligula an edict 
commanded that his statue should be worshipped 
in every temple, and when the Jews refused to 
comply with this, a persecution arose against them, 
which was sanctioned rather than condemned by 
the prefect Flaccus, until finally they were deprived 
of all rights as citizens. Their houses were plun- 
dered and burned, their wise men scourged in the 
theatre, and the most humiliating indignities heaped 
upon them. It happened that in the midst of this 
excitement, Agrippa, the king of the Jews, landed 
at Alexandria, being on his way from Rome to 
his own kingdom. He sent such an account of 



270 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

the state in which he found his people in Egypt to 
Caligula, that the emperor sent immediately to 
arrest Flaccus and depose him from his office. 
The persecution of the Jews, however, did not 
cease here. Though they had made themselves 
felt as a power in letters in Alexandria, and 
through their philosophy and the earnest elegance 
of their style, had come to be regarded as the first 
writers of the Alexandrian school, they received 
no justice at Rome, and their emissary, the learned 
Philo, withdrew from his audience with Caligula, 
saying, "though the emperor is against us, God 
will be our friend." 

When Caligula died and Claudius became emper- 
or, he restored to the Jews all the rights they had 
enjoyed under the Ptolemies and Augustus, and 
the reign of this emperor was such that scholar- 
ship and the pursuits of peace were resumed with 
a new sense of content. The Claudian Museum was 
founded where the emperor insured some notice of 
his own attainments by commanding that on certain 
days of the year his histories of Carthage and of 
Italy should be publicly read. 

Many reforms of the civil service in Egypt were 
inaugurated by Claudius, and the coins made in 
his time are of great use to the student of history, 



Road Across The Desert. 271 

because they are dated with the year of the emper- 
or's reign, and are covered with such designs as 
afford a knowledge of many things connected with 
the native Egyptians. 

During this reign the value of the Eastern com- 
merce was immense, and for the first time the 
Greeks and Romans seemed to fully comprehend 
and appreciate the importance of the route from 
Egypt to India. The journey from Alexandria to 
the coasts of Arabia or to the Eastern coast of 
Africa, near the equator, and back, required nearly 
a year's time ; many dangers of desert and of sea 
attended it, but for fourteen centuries from the 
time of Claudius it was the only route from Europe 
to India, and the wildest imagination would not 
suffice to conjure up all the wonderful riches 
which were carried over it, nor half the human 
suffering which was endured in its passage, nor 
the agonies of the heavily laden creatures that died 
of thirst and starvation in the desert, between 
Coptos and Berenice, on the Red Sea; a fearful 
journey, which could be made only by night, and 
required twelve of these, each way. 

Pliny made the estimate, that four hundred 
thousand pounds sterling in silver and gold was 
sent annually from Alexandria to India, and that 



272 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

the goods purchased were sold in Rome for one 
hundred times the amount paid for them, or forty 
millions of pounds sterling ! 

Under the reign of Claudius, the beautiful tem- 
ple of Latopolis, which was commenced under the 
Ptolemies, was greatly improved, and his name is 
found in several other temples of Upper Egypt. 

The reign of Nero was marked by but one impor- 
tant event in Egypt, which was the introduction of 
Christianity. Where the doctrines of Christ were 
first preached, they were only embraced by the 
ignorant and humble, and no historian has given a 
full account of these beginnings, but it is probable 
that St. Mark went to Alexandria at about the 
time when Nero ascended the throne, and then, 
when he joined St. Paul in Rome he left Annianus, 
generally accounted the first bishop of Alexandria, 
in charge of the growing church in that city. It 
is related of this good man, that he was converted 
by a miracle performed by St. Mark, the healing 
of a cobbler who had been so sorely wounded in 
his hand that it was useless, which wonderful 
thing done before the sight of Annianus, convinced 
him that God alone could give such power, and 
moved him to devote himself to the same work as 
that of Mark. 






Vespasian. 273 

Marvellous things are told of the effects of the 
preaching of St. Mark in Alexandria, and of the 
number of converts he there made, as well as of 
the faithfulness of the new Christians and the rapid 
increase of their' numbers after he left them. 

Following Nero, were the emperors Galba, Otho, 
and Vitellius, whose united reigns were of such 
short duration as to have no effect on Egj^pt. 

Vespasian, the Syrian general, was next exalted 
to the purple, and he landed in Alexandria, A. D. 
70, on his way from Csesarea to Rome. When he 
reached the city he was met by the officers of the 
government, and by the scholars and philosophers, 
all of whom united to pay him honor. Vespasian 
soon became the friend of Apollonius of Tyana, 
the most celebrated scholar then in Alexandria; a 
man who claimed the power of working miracles, 
which power was soon attributed to Vespasian also ; 
in short, this friendship between the emperor and 
the philosopher seems to have been founded upon 
the hope of benefits resulting from it to both 
parties. 

The Alexandrians had felt that on account of 
their readiness to acknowledge and honor Ves- 
pasian he would show his appreciation of their 
good will by making their taxes less, or removing 



274 Egypt as a Romayi Province. 

some of their burdens, but these hopes were 
wofully disappointed, and they called hirn "the 
scullion," in order to express their contempt of his 
meanness and greed. 

Titus, the son whom Vespasian left in Egypt 
when he went on to Rome, was more politic and far- 
seeing, and attempted to strengthen his father's 
power by pleasing the Egyptians. To this end he 
attended the consecration of a new Apis-bull, on 
which occasion he appeared in royal magnificence 
and wore the state crown. 

Under Vespasian the great temple of Kneph at 
Latopolis was finished, and though the names of 
many sovereigns are there inscribed, that of Ves- 
pasian holds the place of honor. This emperor 
carried to Rome a statue of the Nile, surrounded 
by sixteen children, and placed it in the temple of 
Peace. The number of the children is typical of 
the number of cubits desirable in the rise of the 
Nile. 

During the reigns of Titus, Domitian, Nerva and 
Trajan, nothing of importance occurred to change 
the usual aspect of affairs in Egypt. Some of the 
writers of the day, like Juvenal, held everything 
up to ridicule ; others, like Plutarch, found good 
in everything, but a comparison of many authorities 



Egyptian Worship. 275 

gives the conclusion that in Egypt at this period a 
most peculiar religious and moral (or immoral) 
atmosphere pervaded everything. 

The earnest Egyptians clung with tenacity to 
their old faith, and their zeal was so impressive 
that it gave an air of solid reality even to their 
wildest superstitions, so that the Greeks and 
Romans, in large numbers, had half adopted them 
and wore mysterious rings and other charms about 
the person. 

Domitian even believed in astrologers, and for- 
tune-tellers, and built temples for the worship of 
Isis and Serapis at Rome. The artists of Rome, 
in that time, multiplied their representations of the 
mother Isis with the child Horus in her arms, as 
industriously as the Italian painters of later days 
have attempted to portray the Holy Mother and 
the child Jesus, and Juvenal declared that the 
Roman painters lived upon the goddess Isis. The 
pictures of Isis, in her character of the goddess of 
the Dog-Star or Sirius, (to which planet it was said 
that her soul was transferred after death), remind 
one surprisingly of the representations of the Vir- 
gin as our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, 
with the moon beneath her feet. 

Next to the devout, native Egyptians, came the 



276 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

Greek philosophers, who may be described by the 
single word, Platonists. They were numerous and 
had much influence in Egypt. Third in impor- 
tance came the Jews. As has been said, the 
learned Jews had made themselves so prominent as 
scholars, that any belief which they cherished, 
must at least be respected. The Jews were very 
numerous in Egypt, and many of the important 
writings now known as Jewish only, emanated 
from the Jews of Alexandria. 

Added to all these came the Christians, who had, 
since the days of St. Mark's preaching, striven to 
build up their church and faith. The Christians 
of Alexandria, at this time, were men of low degree, 
but even so, they formed an element not to be 
ignored, and there were some among them well 
able to hold their own in the continual disputations 
which occurred in public places. 

It requires little discrimination to see that all 
these religious beliefs so tempered and shaded 
each other, that it may safely be said that in the 
full sense of the terms there was neither an Egyp- 
tian, Jew or Christian in Alexandria. 

In the sixth year of his reign, A. d. 122, the 
Emperor Hadrian visited Egypt. He was accom- 
panied by Antinous, who was so dear to the em- 



The Emperor Hadrian. 277 

peror that when an oracle declared that the pros- 
perity of Hadrian could only be secured by the 
loss of that which was most precious to him, An- 
tinous was so sure of his place in the emperor's 
heart, that he did not hesitate to drown himself in 
the Nile, in order to secure the good he desired for 
his master and friend. For this sacrifice he was 
commemorated by Hadrian in the building of a city 
called Antinoopolis, where divine honors were paid 
to Antinous, as to a god. Coins were also struck 
in his honor as " the Hero Antinous." 

Hadrian interested himself much in the Museum 
of Alexandria, and made many improvements in 
the city. The following letter, which he wrote to 
the consul Servianus, records some of his observa- 
tions in this strange country : 

"Hadrian Augustus to Servianus the Consul, 
greeting : 

" As for Egypt, which you were praising to me, 
dearest Servianus, I have found its people wholly 
light, wavering, and flying after every breath of a 
report. Those who worship Serapis are Christians, 
and those who call themselves bishops of Christ 
are devoted to Serapis. There is no ruler of a 
Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no presbyter of 
the Christians, who is not a mathematician, an 
augur, and a soothsayer. The very patriarch him- 
self, when he came into Egypt, was by some said 
to worship Serapis, and by others to worship 



278 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

Christ. As a race of men they are seditious, vain, 
and spiteful ; as a body, wealthy and prosperous, 
of whom nobody lives in idleness. Some blow 
glass, some make paper, and others linen. There 
is work for the lame, and work for the blind ; even 
those who have lost the use of their hands do not 
live in idleness. 

" Their one gocl is nothing ; Christians, Jews, and 
all nations worship him. I wish this body of men 
were better behaved, and worthy of their number; 
for as for that they ought to hold the chief place 
in Egypt. I have granted everything unto them ; 
I have restored their old privileges, and have made 
them grateful by adding new ones." 

Gnosticism, though not entirely new in Alex- 
andria, was at this period very flourishing under the 
leadership of one Basilides, who may be called 
the founder of Egyptian Gnostics. Any clear 
definition of Gnosticism and of the essential 
differences between the great number of diverging 
Christian schools, all of which claimed this name, 
would be impracticable here, and the Gnosticism 
of Egypt only will be partially explained. 

Under Hadrian the most noted Gnostic teacher 
was Saturninus of Antioch, the founder of a special 
school in Syria. As Basilides is said to have been 
taught in Antioch, he was probably a follower of 
Saturninus. 

Basilides taught that matter was eternal ; that 



Gnosticism. 279 

in order to be saved one must be fated or elected 
to salvation, and one so elected could not be lost 
through sin ; that Deity had begotten seven iEons 
or natures out of himself, and these, together with 
the deity, formed the sacred Ogdoad or combina- 
tion of eight ; he named the seven JEons as Mind, 
Word, Understanding, Power, Excellences, Princes 
and Angels ; and these in their turn, were divided 
and sub-divided until three were three hundred and 
sixty-five emanations ; hence the mystic nature of 
the number three hundred and sixty-five on the sym- 
bolic or Abha-sax stones of the Gnostics. Abba- 
sax may be translated, " hurt me not." These 
three hundred and sixty-five emanations each 
governed a world, and the lowest emanation of all 
governed the world of matter, and became the 
Jehovah of the old Scriptures, and in order to 
counteract the bad influence which he had exerted, 
by endeavoring to make " his chosen people" the 
rulers over all others, the first iEon, or intelligence 
or Nous was sent, who entered into the man Jesus 
at his baptism, and endeavored to teach men that 
their final and greatest good should be to return 
into the supreme good; that the Nous or true 
Christ did not suffer crucifixion, but stood by, 
laughing, while Simon of Cyrene suffered in his 



280 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

form, and he then returned to Heaven — and lastly, 
he taught a purgatorial transmigration of souls in 
case of the very wicked. 

Other Gnostic sects arose in Egypt, differing 
from the followers of Basilides, but as few of their 
writings remain, we can only judge them by the 
reproaches of those who wrote against them, and 
the legitimate conclusion is, that they were an 
emanation from the lowest superstition and sen- 
sualism, tinged by a ray of truth, and perhaps, 
struggling feebly towards the truth ; a transition 
phase between the worship of beasts, fishes and 
v birds, and the acceptance of Christian truth. 

Marcus Aurelius was the next emperor who 
visited Alexandria. He went there on account of 
the rebellion in which Cassius joined, but did not 
arrive until it was ended. This visit took place 
about A. D. 175, when the Library of Alexandria 
was at its greatest glory, and the city stood prom- 
inently out, the centre of the learning of the 
globe. 

Marcus Aurelius forgave the children of the 
traitor Cassius, but his son, Commodus, when he 
became emperor, put them to death. 

Upper Egypt was now so unimportant that little 
or no mention is made of it by any writer, and so 



Caracalla. 281 

complete was its desolation that prisoners were 
banished to the neighborhood of Thebes, as they 
had formerly been sent to the wilds of the desert. 

Caracalla visited Egypt, A. D. 211, and there 
enacted one of the most ruthless tragedies of his- 
tory. The emperor had heard that the Alexan- 
drians had amused themselves by laughing at his 
eccentricity of dressing like Achilles and Alexan- 
der the Great, which, to say the least, could not 
have been becoming to his very moderate stature. 
They had also expressed their horror at his murder 
of his brother Geta and other fearful crimes which 
he had perpetrated. Though he gave no outward 
sign of rage, the heart of Caracalla was full of 
revenge, which he wreaked upon the Alexandrians 
by murdering, in cool blood, thousands of the 
young men of the city whom he had collected on 
a neighboring plain, under the pretext of selecting 
those who were fitted to be enrolled in an Alexan- 
drian phalanx, which he declared his intention of 
forming upon the model of the already existing 
Spartan and Macedonian corps. 

The troops of Caracalla encircled the whole plain, 
and as he moved among the admiring youths, salut- 
ed by their cheers, and smiling upon them, the 
soldiers gradually closed their ranks so that the 



282 Egypt as a Roman Province. 



young men were completely hemmed in, and at a 
signal, given by the emperor himself, they fell 
upon and slew the unarmed boys, as well as many 
of their freinds who had come out to witness the 
proposed review. Many were driven into the 
canal, and the Nile flowed to the sea, a river of 
blood. 

Caracalla next consecrated, in the temple of 
Serapis, the sword with which he had slain his 
brother Geta, and then returned to Antioch, well 
pleased with the manner in which the jokes of the 
Alexandrians had been avenged ! From this mo- 
ment the Alexandrians were treated as enemies 
rather than subjects of the Roman power. 

The interval between the time of Caracalla and 
that of Quintillus, A. D. 217-270, was that of the 
rise of the kingdom and strength of Palmyra, while 
the history of Eg} 7 pt was that of every province 
under a declining power, as was that of Rome in 
the East, at that time, until finally rebellions, sieges, 
war, and ever}^ sort of unhapp}^ fate befell it, and 
in the last named year, Zenobia, queen of Pal- 
myra, was acknowledged as queen of Egypt by the 
whole nation. 

Zenobia made Egypt a province of Syria, and 
the effect upon the people of Upper Egypt was to 







POMPEY'S PILLAK. 



Zenobia. 285: 

elevate them in their own opinion, and to render 
them ever after more rebellious against the Greeks 
of Alexandria. 

However, the reign of Zenobia in Egypt was of 
short duration, for Aurelian overcame her army in 
272, took her prisoner, and carried her to Rome, 
where, after gracing his triumph, she was permitted 
to pass her life in that quiet which must be the 
most acute torture to a woman like Zenobia. 

" City of Solomon ! whose fame and power, 

And wondrous wealth, began in earth's young hour; 

How, mid her fallen pomp, thought wanders back 

O'er vanished days,— a sad yet dazzling track. 

Arabia's fierce and desolating horde, 

Rome's conquering eagle, Babylonia's sword, 

All we behold, but chief one form appears, 

Rising all radiant from the gulf of years: 

Proud is her step, her dark eye varying oft; 

Now flashing fire, now languishingly soft; 

The jewelled crown well suits that brow serene,— 

'Tis great Zenobia, Tadmor's glorious queen. 

Beauty hath oft put war's dread helmet on, 

Since her w T ho ruled earth-conquering Babylon ; 

Yet not Semiramis, who boasts her bays, 

Nor Gaul's bold maid, who graced these latter days, 

Swayed the rough hearts of men with wilder power, 

Or met more bravely battle's dreadful hour, 

Than she on whom pleased fame and fortune smiled, 

The dark-haired mistress of the Syrian wild. 

But now the conqueror's brighter hour has passed, 
And fair Zenobia's star goes down at last. 



286 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

The Roman comes,— his legions file around, 
Doomed Tadmor's walls, to deafening trumpets sound. 
Aurelian bids the desert princess yield, 
Hut hark ! her answer— clashing sword and shield ! 
Girt by her chiefs, her proud plumed head she rears, 
Defies the foe, and each faint spirit cheers ; 
Her milk-white courser prances round the wall, 
Her gestures, looks, and words inspiring all. 
Through opened gates her troops are sallying now, 
Still in their frout appears that dauntless brow : 
"Where'er her silver wand is seen to wave, 
There rush the boldest, and there fall the brave, 
And when borne back by Rome's immense array, 
She fights retreating, pauses still to slay. 



But ceaseless war, and famine's tortures slow, 

Wear bravery out, and bring Palmyra low. 

'Twas then the Queen, to crush the despot's might, 

Passed from the gates beneath the veil of night, 

Hers still the hope from Persia aid to call, 

Save her loved land, and stay Palmyra's fall. 

"With fluttering heart, but calm and fearless eye, 

A cross the trackless desert see her fly ! 

On swept the camel with unflagging speed, 

As though he knew that hour of deadly need ; 

Her Syrian guards o'er Arab steeds might lean, 

But not keep pace with her, their flying queen. 

What recked she drifting sand or scorching sun ? 

What recked she pain or toil, that mission done? 

Come hunger, thirst,— on, on her course must be, 

Each swift-winged hour brought, Tadmor, doom to thee ! 



Lo ! on their track, through clouds of rising sand, 
Bright helms were seen, now glittered spear and brand : 
Then horsemen forward dashed,— a long-drawn row,— 
'Twas Rome's dread troops, the fierce pursuing foe ! 



Zenobia. 287 

They saw, and hailed, —across the waste was borne. 

The hoarse, deep note of many a trumpet-horn ; 

And on they came, like winds careering fast, 

Not half so fearful sweeps the simoom blast; 

They brought for her who scoured those desert plains, 

Woe and disgrace, captivity and chains. 

But still Zenobia flew, the steeds that bore 

Her guards had sunk,— those chiefs could aid no more; 

And now that camel shaped his course alone,— 

He reared his head as louder blasts were blown, 

And strained each nerve his soft black drooping eye 

Telling of suffering, fear and agony ; 

Unhappy, faithful thing! that still would brave 

Toil, peril, death, his royal charge to save. 



'Twas vain : as hounds at length chase down the deer, 

The Roman horsemen drew more near and near; 

Though some fell back, or sank upon the way, 

Yet others, slowly gaining, reached the prey. 

They halted, wheeled,— their armors' dazzling sheen 

Formed a dread wall round Syria's fated queen ; 

Hope fled her breast,— she yielded,— ruined now, 

But still majestic shone that high-born brow. 

Ah ! as they led their prisoner o'er the plain, 

No more to rule, but grace a tyrant's train, 

And, exiled, pine where wooded Anio sweeps, 

Far from her desert home and palmy steeps, 

The sun of Syria's power went down in night, 

On Freedom's tree there rained a withering blight. 

Glory to proud Palmyra sighed adieu, 

And o'er her shrines Destruction's angel flew." 



Soon after Zenobia's fall the Egyptians en- 
deavored to assert themselves by setting up as 
their ruler Firmus, a Syrian, who took the title of 



288 Egypt as a Roman Province, 

emperor, and leading the Arabs and native Egyp- 
tians against Alexandria, undertook its overthrow. 
No reliable account of this rebellion exists. The 
new government was organized, and Coptos and 
Ptolemais selected as its capital cities, but the 
Romans were greatly disturbed by this movement, 
fearing the loss of the tribute of Egyptian corn, 
and Aurelian hastened to attack Firmus, made 
him a prisoner, then tortured and finally murdered 
him. 

This unsuccessful revolt was the first manifesta- 
tion of the independence which the Arabs and 
Blemmyes of Upper Egypt were beginning to feel. 
Their troops were so constantly engaged in rebel- 
lions on one hand or the other that a better disci- 
pline was reached, and they began to assume a 
character ill suited to the slaves of Rome. At 
length, in the fourth year of the reign of Diocle- 
tian, A. D. 288, a serious rebellion broke out, and 
one Achilleus was declared emperor. This new 
movement assumed such proportions that in A. D. 
292 Diocletian, in person, led his army into South- 
ern Egypt and destroyed Coptos and Busiris, after 
they had sustained long sieges. 

But a short time elapsed ere the city of Alexan- 
dria declared itself in favor of Achilleus, and Dio- 






Diocletian. 289 

cletian again led an attack in Egypt. Alexandria 
held out against a siege of eight months, at the 
end of which Diocletian entered as its conqueror. 
Fortunately for the Egyptians his horse stumbled 
as he rode into the city, and he taking this for an 
augury, and interpreting it to mean mercy, did not 
subject the Alexandrians to the fate they might 
reasonably have feared. It was in honor of this 
clemency that the so-called Pompey's Pillar was 
erected, and was, in all probability, surmounted 
by a statue of the horse which saved the city from 
pillage and destruction. 

But that which marks the reign of Diocletian 
with a stain, so scarlet that at this distance of time 
it is clearly discerned upon the ever moving roll of 
history, is the edict of persecution against the 
Christians, which was carried out to the extremist 
letter in the province of Egypt. The story belongs 
to the history of the church, and its recital causes 
a double wonder at the pertinacity with which the 
Christians endured, and at the fertile invention of 
sufferings and torments with which the Romans 
were endowed. So important was this persecution 
that the habit of reckoning from the era of Augus- 
tus was abandoned, and time was reckoned from 



290 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

the first year of Diocletian, and called by Chris- 
tians the Era of Martyrs. 

From this time to that of the reign of Constan- 
tine many different beliefs arose in Egypt, the 
most important being that called Manicheism, a 
Persian form of Gnostic doctrine. 

The succession of Constantine, as sole emperor 
of Rome, A. D. 313, made a revolution in the relig- 
ion and character of the whole empire. He became 
a Christian, and his reign was marked by quarrels 
between different sects of Christians, rather than 
those between Christians and Pagans. The coun- 
cil at Nicsea, and the great Arian controversy 
occurred during the reign of Constantine. 

The building up of Constantinople robbed Alex- 
andria of its prestige as a seat of learning, and 
gave it a blow from which it never recovered. 
But Alexandria continued to be famous as the 
fountain of all true knowledge in religious matters 
for some time, until finally even this precedence 
was lost, and asceticism, magic and astrology did 
their deadly work, taking the place of the paganism 
and idolatry which gradually died out, so that even 
the advent of the pagan Julian, and all his zeal for 
its resurrection, only served to show how dead tt 
really was. 



Monasticism. 293 

About 370, when paganism was quite extinct, 
the monasteries of Egypt had risen to their best 
estate. The laws of the empire acknowledged 
them and protected their property and rights. 
Pachomius founded an order which then numbered 
more than seven thousand, although his rule was 
most severe. Another order was under the leader- 
ship of Anuph, who boasted that he could obtain 
anything for which he chose to pay. 

Serapion was at the head of a thousand monks 
in the Arsinoite Nome, and a large company with- 
drew to the desert of Scetis, the spot sanctified by 
the penance and triumph of St. Anthony, and the 
devotion, self-denial and endurance of these men 
form a story almost exceeding belief. 

Many solitary hermits and monks were scattered 
through Egypt, leading the severest penitential 
lives. Some of these monks wrote such things as 
have rendered their fame immortal, but others, 
and the larger number, were simple, devout men, 
devoted to their doctrines, which, in many cases, 
were anything but such as a true Christian should 
believe. 

St. Jerome gives an account of St. Mary of 
Egypt, which is essentially as follows : A woman 
named Mary, whose wickedness far exceeded that 



294 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

of Mary Magdalen, dwelt at Alexandria, and after 
seventeen years of the most abandoned life, in the 
year 365, as she walked one day near the sea, saw 
a vessel about to depart for Syria, well filled with 
pilgrims who were going to Jerusalem. On inquiry 
she found that they went to keep the feast of the 
True Cross. She was seized with an irrepressible 
desire to go with them, and having no money for 
the voyage she sold herself to the sailors and pil- 
grims, and thus accomplished the journey. 

Arriving at Jerusalem she approached the 
church with the others, but when she would enter 
some invisible power restrained her, and as often as 
she essayed to cross the threshold so often was she 
driven back. 

Then a sense of all her wickedness came over 
her — sorrow overpowered her — she fell to the 
ground and prayed for pardon and peace. In- 
stantly the restraint was removed, and she entered 
the church on her knees. 

When she came out she bought three loaves of 
bread and went into the desert, even beyond Jor- 
dan, where she remained in deepest penitence. 
She drank only water, and subsisted on roots and 
berries and her three loaves, which were constantly 
renewed by a miracle. 



St. Mary of Egypt. 295 

Her clothing wore out and dropped off, then 
she prayed God to clothe her, and her hair became 
like a thick cloak about her, or, as others say, an 
angel bore her a heavenly garment. 

When she had thus passed forty-seven years she 
was found by Zosimus, a priest. She begged him 
to keep silence concerning her, and to return at 
the end of a year, and bring with him a holy wafer 
that she might confess herself and receive the holy 
sacrament before her death. Zosimus did as she 
asked, and when he returned was not able to cross 
the Jordan, and Mary was miraculously assisted to 
cross to him. After receiving the wafer she re- 
quested him to leave her, and to return at the end 
of another year. 

When that time had passed and the good priest 
came again he found her dead, and in her hand a 
paper, upon which was written : " O, Father Zosi- 
mus, bury the body of the poor sinner, Mary of 
Egypt ! Give earth to earth, and dust to dust, for 
Christ's sake ! " When he endeavored to do this 
he found himself unable, for he was old and feeble. 
Then a lion came and assisted him, digging with 
his paws ; and when the body of Mary was placed 
in the grave the lion went quietly away, and Zosi- 



296 Egypt a $ a Roman Province. 

mus returned home, praising God for the mercy he 
had shown to the penitent woman. * 

St. Macarius, of Alexandria, another hermit 
saint, was very famous in Egypt for his scholar- 
ship, as well as for his piety. The following 
singular story is told of him, and it is illustrated 
by a painting in the Campo Santo at Pisa. He 
was once walking among the Egyptian tombs 
when he saw a skull. He turned it over, and 
asked to whom it belonged. It replied, " To a 
pagan." He then said, u Where is thy soul ? " and 
the skull replied, " In hell." The saint then de- 
manded, " How deep ? " " The depth is more than 
the distance between heaven and earth," answered 
the skull. Then Macarius asked, "Are any deeper 
than thou?" "Yes, the Jews are deeper still," 
was the reply. " And any deeper than the Jews ? " 
again questioned the hermit. " Yes, in sooth, for 
the Christians whom Christ Jesus hath redeemed, 
and who show in their acts that they despise his 
doctrine, are deeper still," replied the skull. 



*St. Mary of Egypt is mentioned by Southey, in Roderick, the 
last of the Goths, as— that Egyptian penitent whose tears fretted 
the rock and moistened round her cave the thirsty desert. 

Chaucer mentions her, in the Canterbury Tales, line 4,922, and 
she is one of the penitents who intercede for the soul of Margaret, 
in Goethe's Faust, second part, Act v., Sc. 7. 



Destruction of Library. 299 

The monasteries of Egypt were visited by many 
strangers, and the monks were believed to require 
no learning to aid them to speak divine truth, since 
God had endowed them with the power of miracle- 
working, and revealed all holy knowledge to them, 
through the Holy Spirit. 

When Theodosius came to the throne in 379 he 
made the most sweeping and fiercest attack upon 
paganism that had yet been known, and com- 
manded that Christian observances should be 
established throughout the kingdom. 

He had a sympathetic co-worker in Theophilus, 
the bishop of Alexandria, who was so forcible in 
his measures that a serious strife ensued between 
the Christians and Pagans, in the course of which 
the temple of Serapis was destroyed, together with 
the great library, numbering more than seven 
hundred thousand volumes. 

The first great library of Alexandria had been 
destroyed in the time of Julius Caesar; then 
Anthony presented to Cleopatra the library of 
Pergamus, containing two hundred thousand 
volumes, which had been increased to the size 
mentioned above, when this Christian zeal caused 
its destruction. 

In 394, upon the death of Theodosius, the 



300 Egypt as a Roman Province. 

Roman Empire was divided into the Eastern and 
Western Empires; Egypt was included in the 
eastern division, ruled by Arcadius, under whom 
no important changes occurred, and he was suc- 
ceeded in 408 by his son, Theodosius. 

As the last was but a child, Cyril was appointed 
governor, and under his rule another persecution 
of the Jews took place. 

Theodosius II. reigned nearly forty-two years, and 
met his death by accident, being thrown from his 
horse while hunting near Constantinople, and re- 
ceiving injuries from which he died. No glory, in 
truth no importance of any sort is associated with 
the time of this emperor. The story of his wife, 
the heathen Athenais, called Eudocia in Christian 
baptism, though not necessary to be related here, 
is of unusual interest. 



CHAPTER IX. 

FROM THE PERSIAN INVASION, A. D. 501, TO THE 
ARAB CONQUEST, A. D. 640. 



FROM the death of 
Theodosius II. to 
A. d. 501, the tenth year 
of the reign of the Em- 
peror Anastasius, the his- 
tory of Egypt is a mere 
story of petty civil and 
religious discords, of ups 
and downs, each year as 
it passed, leaving Egypt 
more unimportant than 
at its beginning, until (in 

Female playing on a guitar, from a box. 501) the Persians, after 

possessing themselves of a large portion of Syria 
entered Egypt at Pelusium, and laid everything 
waste as they passed on towards Alexandria. The 

301 




302 The Persian Invasion. 

capital, however, was not taken, and the Persians 
retired leaving starvation behind them. Then 
fierce riots took place, for the people, who were 
dying of disease and famine, rebelled against the 
officers of the government, and were with difficulty 
restrained from themselves destroying their city, 
which had escaped the pillage of the invaders. 

The Persian inroad should have taught the 
Christians of Alexandria and Constantinople that 
their only safety was in union ; but the lesson was 
unheeded, and they were so occupied with quarrels 
between Jacobites and Melchites, between rival 
bishops and rival forms of worship, that they were 
fatally unfitting themselves for any concerted 
action, fatally preparing to fall a prey to the Avor- 
shippers of the sun. Worse than all the persecu- 
tion of the Copts, and kindred measures, engen- 
dered in many Egyptians an envy of the Arabic 
subjects of Persia, who while under foreign domin- 
ion had, in a certain sense, more freedom than was 
accorded the people of Egypt. 

That wise policy, which Augustus so well appre- 
ciated when he allowed the Egyptians to follow 
their own religion and customs, was forgotten, and 
exactly the opposite course pursued. 

The Persians had obtained possession of the for- 



Monastery of St. Catherine. 



303 



tress of Petra, and in the year 527 Justinian, in 
order to protect the sole pass by which a Persian 
army could enter Egypt without a fleet, built a 
fortified monastery near Mount Sinai. This monas- 
tery is said to have been built upon the spot where 




THE MONASTERY OF ST. CATHERINE. 



Moses stood when God spoke to him. It is now 
called the monastery of St. Catherine. 

After this convent was finished it was found 
that another peak commanded it, upon which the 
emperor beheaded the builder, and put another 
small fortress on the higher ground. 



304 The Persian Invasion. 

The monastery of St. Catherine is now visited 
by many travellers, and until recently all who 
went there were hoisted and lowered by a crane 
and windlass, as no outlet existed below an aper- 
ture high up in the wall. Now there is a gateway 
which is jealously guarded. 

The idea of making a monastery a fortress seems 
to have been borrowed from the ancient Egyptians, 
for the old temples were always the strongholds of 
the cities. So the Roman emperors made the 
monks their protectors, not only in the monastery 
of St. Catherine, but also in those of St. Anthony 
and St. Paul, near the Red Sea. 

Under the reign of Justinian the final blow was 
given to learning in Egypt, for among the Egyp- 
tians the priests alone had been scholars, and the 
extinction of their worship thus included that of 
learning. At Alexandria severe measures had 
been taken at times against the pagan philosophers, 
and their schools had been closed, yet the laws had 
rarely been strictly enforced, and the pagan 
teachers had fed the dying flame of Alexandrian 
scholarship and learning. But now the emperor 
commanded their perfect silence, and this city, 
famous for its erudition, was left to the ignorance 
of its last state, which was in certain ways worse 



Religious Quarrels. 305 

than its first, since it is best that an ignorant peo- 
ple should be governed and held in check by those 
who are at unity, and hold one faith. But now in 




WINDLASS AT THE CONVENT. 

Egypt the doctors disagreed, and each point of 
belief was made a cause of unending quarrels and 
contentions. 

Justinian was followed by the emperors Justin 



306 The Persian Invasion. 

II., Mauricius and Phocas, the latter being the 
murderer of his predecessor. On account of this 
murder Chosroes, of Persia, who had married the 
daughter of Mauricius, declared all his treaties with 
the Romans at an end, and immediately moved his 
army against Phocas. The reign of this emperor 
was a period of great disturbance in Egypt, and 
in the seventh year a rebellion occurred at Alex- 
andria by which Heraclius, a son of a prefect of 
Cyrene, was placed in power. When Heraclius 
entered the port of Constantinople with his fleet, 
Phocas was murdered in his turn, and was little 
regretted, for during his short reign of eight years 
he had lost every province of the empire. 

Chosroes of Persia commanded an immense army, 
and the early part of the reign of Heraclius was a 
period of continual warfare, for Chosroes attacked 
Jerusalem, Constantinople and Lower Egypt simul- 
taneously. The latter was easily overcome, but 
the first two cost a longer and harder struggle. 
The conquest of Jerusalem, and the seizure of the 
True Cross by the Persian monarch, aroused Hera- 
clius from an apathy which had apparently robbed 
him of all energy during the first years of his 
power. 

Now Chosroes had conquered the whole terri- 



Conquest of Chosroes. 307 

tory, from the Euphrates to the Bosphorus ; Chal- 
cedon surrendered to him, and a Persian camp was 
maintained more than ten years in the immediate 
presence of Constantinople. 

The provinces which had been taken from the 
Romans were hard to govern. The idea, if not 
the reality of a republic, had always been kept 
alive by both Greeks and Romans, and those who 
had always talked of liberty and law, submitted 
with poor grace to the absolute and insolent policy 
of an oriental monarch. 

To the Christians of the East the worship of fire 
was an abomination and horror. Gibbon says that : 
" Conscious of their fear and hatred, the Per- 
sian monarch governed his new subjects with an 
iron sceptre ; he exhausted their wealth by exorbi- 
tant tributes and by plunder; he despoiled or 
demolished their temples, and transported to his 
hereditary realms the gold, the silver, the precious 
marbles, the arts and the artists of the conquered 
cities." 

At the time of the conquest of Jerusalem the 
Emperor Heraclius, in his capital of Constantinople, 
showed no sign of the noble courage which he later 
developed. Indeed, he made preparations to flee 
to Carthage, but the patriarch led him to the altar 



308 The Persian Invasion. 

of St. Sophia, where he took a solemn oath to live 
and die with the people over whom God had 
placed him as a ruler. 

Had we no other matter in hand, the Herculean 
labors of this emperor alone would furnish a most 
interesting study. Here it must be curtly said, 
that from the time when he aroused himself to his 
work, he undertook six arduous expeditions against 
the Persians before he stood forth as their con- 
queror. During that time he drilled and educated 
his army ; he called them sons and brothers, and 
imposed no hardships that he did not share, until 
he came to be regarded with perfect confidence. 

"Be not terrified," he said, "with the number 
of your foes. With the aid of Heaven one Roman 
may triumph over a thousand barbarians. But if 
we devote our lives for the salvation of our breth- 
ren we shall obtain the crown of martyrdom and 
our immortal reward will be liberally paid by God 
and by posterity." 

Chosroes had at length exhausted his treasures, 
and his Arab troops, which had been of great use 
to him at Constantinople and in Egypt, rebelled 
against him, and thus took the first step towards 
the establishment of a new power, of which we 
shall soon speak. At length after many mishaps, 






Palace of Dastagerd. 309 

the Romans advanced even upon Dastagerd, the 
favorite residence of the proud Persian, where he 
was surrounded by such wealth and magnificent 
state as has seldom been equalled by the world's 
rulers. 

His parks were filled with unnumbered flocks 
and herds, while peacocks, ostriches and other 
game, and even lions and tigers were kept for the 
pleasures of the chase. He had nine hundred and 
sixty elephants to enhance his splendor ; his tents 
and baggage were moved by a train of twelve 
thousand large and eight thousand smaller camels ; 
and six thousand horses and mules were in his 
stables. 

Six thousand guards were successively mounted, 
before the palace ; twelve thousand slaves served 
within, and three thousand virgins were in his 
harem. A hundred subterraneous chambers were 
scarcely sufficient to contain his supplies of gold, 
silver, gems, silks, and aromatics. It is said that 
thirty thousand rich hangings were on the walls, 
forty thousand pillars supported the roof, and one 
thousand gold globes were suspended from the 
dome to imitate the motions of the planets and 
constellations. 

When Heraclius laid siege to this wondrous 



310 The Persian Invasion. 

palace, much of this wealth had been exhausted, 
but enough remained to satisfy the rapacity of the 
conquerors. 

Chosroes fled to Ctesiphon, and one of his sons 
seized the throne ; the wretched old monarch was 
thrown into a dungeon, where he died on the fifth 
day. 

A treaty was made between Heraclius and the 
new king, by which the emperor recovered his 
power in Egypt. 

During the years of the Persian invasion, 
Mohammed had come forth and declared himself a 
prophet, and his power began to arise, destined to 
control the Eastern World. 

The revolt of the Arabs against Chosroes was 
the first stone laid in the foundation of the future 
mighty empire of the caliphs. The historians of 
Arabia reckon their time from the Hegira, or the 
flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, which 
took place in the twelfth year of the reign of 
Heraclius. 

The Moslems soon overpowered the Persians, 
and it was not long after the treaty made with the 
latter by Heraclius, before the Romans began to 
realize that a still more dangerous enemy opposed 
them. So great was the power of this sect, that 



The Mohammedans. 311 

in a short time Heraclius paid a tribute to the 
Prophet for the privilege of retaining his rights in 
Egypt. This continued eight years — then the 
emperor had no means of paying this tax. Now 
the Mohammedans began to force themselves and 
their religion upon Alexandria, which, in its miser- 
able condition, easily yielded to any power, for 
so great had been the evil consequences of the fac- 
tions in the so-called Christian church — -the quar- 
rels of the Jacobites and the Melchites — that the 
Egyptians saw the approach of a rival religion with 
little dread, feeling that no change could be for the 
worse. 

At the time of the Mohammedan conquest, 
Omar, the second caliph, was in command, and his 
general, Amru, led the army which made an easy 
conquest of Egypt, since but two towns, Babylon 
and Alexandria, made anything worthy of being 
called resistance or attempted to defend themselves. 

The story runs that just when Amru was about 
to enter Egypt, near Raphia, a sealed packet was 
given to him by a courier from the caliph Omar. 
Amru feared that it might contain his recall, and 
refused to receive it until he should have passed the 
boundary line and halted his troops upon Egyptian 
soil. Then he called his officers about him and 



312 The Persian Invasion. 

Omar's letter was read. It was as the wily gene- 
ral had suspected, and if he had not read it in 
Egypt he would have been compelled to relinquish 
the prey almost within his grasp. 

When Amru reached the fortress of Babylon 
and saw that it would hold out against a siege, he 
sent to the caliph for more soldiers. The Greeks 
were braye and determined, and had not Makoukas, 
the goyernor of Memphis, proved a traitor, the yic- 
tory would haye been dear to the Moslems. But Ma- 
koukas pursuaded the Greeks that if they remained 
within the citadel they must be lost, and a large 
portion of the garrison retired with him to the 
island of Roclah in the Nile, and destroyed the 
bridge oyer which they passed. By this means the 
fortress was easily captured by Amru. 

The Egyptians, through the medium of Makou- 
kas, had basely agreed to pay tribute to the caliph, 
but the Greeks, less cowardly in spirit, and full of 
hatred for the Arabs, made a braye retreat to 
Alexandria, in the course of which the}' fought 
seyeral desperate battles and lost many men. 
This retreat occupied three weeks time and coyered 
a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. 

When the Greeks who had made a part of the 
garrisons of Babylon and Memphis thus threw 



Adventure of Amru. 313 

themselves into Alexandria, all began to make 
ready for a brave defence of that city, and the 
Arabs, on their part prepared for a long siege. 

One incident of this conflict shows how great 
results often hang upon a look or word. The 
Greeks made daily sallies upon the Moslem camp, 
and on one occasion Amru, with a handful of men, 
followed rashly within the gates of the city, which 
were promptly closed behind them. The Greeks 
then demanded of the prisoners what they would 
choose for their fate, since they were wholly within 
the power of their enemies. Amru haughtily 
replied, "You must pay us a tribute, or become 
Mohammedans, or one of us must die." Then the 
Greeks guessed his rank, but a cunning Arab, who 
saw his general's mistake, boldly slapped his face 
and commanded him to keep silence before his bet- 
ters, while he proceeded to convince the Greeks that 
the best course would be to allow the prisoners to 
act as messengers for them and thus arrange a 
peace with the Arab chief. 

He gained his point, and a letter was written to 
Amru, and despatched by the prisoners to the 
camp. The joyous shouts with which they were 
received, and the cry of " God is great," soon con- 



314 The Persian Invasion. 

vinced the Greeks of the value of the prize they 
had thus foolishly released. 

After fourteen weary months the Moslems were 
victorious ; the Greeks fled, some by land and 
some by sea, and Ainru was so incautious as to 
pursue the former. Then those who were in the 
ships returned, and again possessed the city, put- 
ting to death the Arabs who were left as a garrison. 
But the weakened Greeks could not long hold out 
against the renewed attacks of the maddened 
Amru, and finally, on Friday, December twenty- 
second, in the year of our Lord six hundred and 
forty, Egypt became an Arabian province. 

Sharpe, in his history of Egypt says, " Amrou, 
wrote word to the caliph Omar, boasting that he 
had taken a city which beggared all description, 
in which he found four thousand palaces, four 
thousand public baths, four hundred theatres, 
twelve thousand sellers of herbs ; and, having a 
thievish eye for Jewish industry, he added that 
there Avere forty thousand Jews paying tribute. 
Such was the store of wheat which he sent on 
camels' backs to Medina, that the Arabic historian 
declares, in his usual style of eastern poetry, that 
the first of an unbroken line of camels entered the 
holy city before the last camel had left Egypt." 



Alexandria, 317 

The Greeks regarded Alexandria at this time as 
greatly fallen from its former estate, but to the 
Arabs it was even now of wondrous beauty. There 
were the Pharos ; the Heptastadium ;' bridges unit- 
ing two harbors ; the four beautiful gates of the 
Sun, and Moon, the Canobic gate, and that of the 
Necropolis ; the magnificent Soma or Mausoleum 
of the great founder of the city ; the Museum 
which had been rebuilt since the destruction of 
that of the Ptolemies ; Caesar's temple and sev- 
eral Christian churches ; and more than all, the 
temple of Serapis, only exceeded in all the world 
by the capitol at Rome. 

Besides these edifices and noble works which 
still remained, there were the ruins of the Hippo- 
drome, the Bruchium, the aqueduct, and many 
other remnants of a still grander past. 

Although the famous library of Alexandria had 
been twice destroyed, once in the time of Julius 
Caesar, and again under Theodosius I., as has been 
already mentioned, yet at the time of the Arab 
conquest many books remained, for history relates 
that when Amru set his seal upon all the public 
property, John Philoponus begged that the books 
might be spared ; accordingly, Amru asked the 
caliph for direction in the matter. Omar replied 
that if the books were the same as the Koran they 



318 



The Persian Invasion 



were useless, and if not like the Koran they were 
worthless, therefore they should be burned in any 
case ; history adds that they were used for heating 
the public baths, and were sufficient for that pur- 
pose during the space of six months. 




EGYPTIAN GIRL. 






CHAPTER X. 

FROM THE ABAB CONQUEST, A.D. 640, TO THE 
FBENCH INVASION IN 1798. 

AT the time of the subjugation of Egypt by 
Amru, the Mohammedan or Saracenic gov- 
ernment was in an utterly unorganized condition. 
As far as Egypt was concerned no clear history of 
it under Moslem rule can be given before the end 
of the tenth century, when Cahira or Cairo became 
the chief city of the Fatimite caliphs. The eighth 
and ninth centuries were spent in settling the claims 
of the various descendants of the Prophet, for the 
three families of his uncle Abbas, his son-in-law 
Ali, and his daughter Fatima, expelled one another 
from the thrones of Damascus and Bagdad, and at 
times Egypt and other conquered provinces were 
able to add to the general confusion by declaring 
their independence. But at length the lineal de- 

319 






820 The Arab Conquest. 

scendants of the Prophet were in its midst and the 
Egyptians were hopelessly doomed to ages of Sara- 
cenic slavery. 

The Arabic name of Cairo is Musr el Kaherah, 
and signifies "the victorious capital." It was 
founded in 969. The Fatimite caliphs removed 
the bones of their ancestors to this new city and 
its increase and adornment became their chief care. 

The eleventh century brought many misfortunes 
to Egypt. The more eastern caliphs sent the 
Turks who were in their service to attack the 
Fatimite rulers; a famine, followed by pestilence 
and plague depopulated the land ; and the crusad- 
ers threatened Cairo with destruction. The build- 
ing of the city went on slowly until 1171, when the 
Mameluke Saladin usurped the power and laid the 
foundation of his remarkable dynasty, called that 
of the Ayubites. 

Saladin, not being a lineal descendant of the 
Prophet, could not assume the title of caliph, as that 
implied a sacred office as well as a kingly one, 
therefore, he called himself a Sultan, and appointed 
a priest from among those who claimed to have 
the blood of the great Mohammed in their veins. 

Saladin was not by any means allowed a peace- 
ful enjoyment of his rule. Though acknowledged 







EGYPTIAN WOMAN, 



Saladin. 323 

as the sovereign of Egypt by many smaller states, 
and though the caliph of Bagdad sanctioned his 
government, the king of Syria opposed him because 
he feared so powerful a neighbor, and the descend- 
ants of the Fatimites succeeded in bringing one hun- 
dred thousand men into the field against him. Next, 
the crusaders, under William of Sicily, laid siege to 
Alexandria, and though they ignominiously fled 
before meeting the Saracens, they gave Saladin 
much trouble in his warlike preparations. Finally, 
the Damascenes made Avar upon him, and it was 
not until these most jealous foes had been overcome 
that the new Sultan could sit firmly in his royal 
seat. 

He now turned his attention to the fortification 
and improvement of Cairo ; he encouraged schools 
and literature, and had the ambition to make his 
city excel the ancient Thebes or Memphis. Many 
of the magnificent works of Egypt were despoiled 
or entirely destroyed in order to furnish materials 
for the enriching and adornment of the new Mo- 
hammedan capital. 

But the soldier spirit of Saladin could not long 
remain quiet, and he soon craved new conquests. 
A history of his Syrian campaigns, in course of 
which he carried his victorious arms even to Jeru- 



324 The Arab Conquest. 

salem, does not belong here, interesting as it is. 

Saladin died in 1193, leaving behind him many 
works which still testify to the truth that though 
he was preeminently a soldier, he was also atten- 
tive to the welfare of his kingdom in many ways. 
The citadel of Cairo, the walls, canals, roads and 
dykes, and various other large labors, attest his 
intelligence in his home rule. 

Saladin was chivalrous according to the highest 
standard of mediaeval times ; faithful to his prom- 
ises ; moderate in his judgments ; brave to a fault ; 
just, generous, and pious. These qualities were 
accorded him even by his enemies. 

Saladin was succeeded hj his son Alcamel, who 
made himself a great name by his victories over 
the crusaders. 

Alcamel died in 1238, and was followed by Ala- 
dil, a younger son, whose death soon placed Noj- 
modclin, the eldest brother in power. This Sultan 
was, like his predecessors, much occupied with the 
crusaders, but the chief matter of Egyptian interest 
connected with his reign, was the rise of the j30wer 
of the Mamelukes, who finally governed Egypt 
during more than five centuries. 

The word Mameluke signifies " the possessed," 
or slaves, and this formidable class were indeed 






The Mamelukes. 325 

Circassian slaves, brought to Egypt as body-guards 
to the Sultans, who feared to trust themselves 
entirely in the hands of the people they had con- 
quered. Each Sultan unthinkingly added little by 
little to the power of these slaves, until at last, the 
occasion of a very young prince being left heir to 
the throne presenting itself, one of the Mamelukes 
called Ibeg or Moez was made regent ; the young 
prince died ; Moez married the queen-mother, and 
ascended the throne as Sultan. After a short 
reign he was assassinated by the order of his wife, 
but his son succeeded him, and though many rebel- 
lions had taken place, the Mamelukes retained the 
power. 

The history of the Mamelukes is so much a his- 
tory of wars, massacres and general horrors, that it 
is pleasant to turn to one of their number whose 
name is now principally associated with the arts of 
peace. Sultan Kalaon came to the throne in 1279, 
and though at first he devoted himself to the ex- 
pulsion of the Franks from Syria, yet, that being 
done, he turned his attention to the fortification of 
Damascus, Aleppo, and other Syrian towns, and 
rebuilt the castles, walls and gates in so picturesque 
a style as to command the gratitude as well as the 
admiration of all beholders to the present day. 



326 The Arab Conquest. 

The son and grandson of Kalaon, Mohammed-el- 
Nasr and Hassan, maintained his reputation as an 
architect and a lover of beautiful things. In truth 
the fourteenth centuiy was a golden period in the 
history of the Mameluke Sultans. Machiavelli says 
of this epoch, " The influence of a land full of 
delights was so modified by the vigor of the institu- 
tions, that Egypt produced most eminent men of 
every kind ; and, if the long succession of ages had 
not extinguished their names, we should have seen 
how much more worthy of praise they were than 
Alexander the Great, and so many others whose 
renown still flourishes." 

This sounds like very exaggerated praise, but it 
indicates that the Egyptians of the period com- 
manded the respect of Europeans. The whole 
history of the Sultan Hassan seems to be told in 
that of his mosque, still one of the most beautiful 
and interesting monuments in Cairo. (It is seen 
on the right of the illustration of the view from the 
citadel of Cairo). This Sultan came to the throne 
when but thirteen years old, in 1347. He was 
very strict in his religion and conformed his life to 
the exact precepts of the Koran. When he was 
twenty-two years old he commenced the building 
of his mosque, and when his treasurer complained 



Mosque of Sultan Hassan. 327 

of 'his lavishness in the sums he spent upon it, 
and the low state of his purse, Hassan replied, " It 
is better that the Sultan should be poor, than that 
people should say that he began a mosque and 
could not finish it." This mosque is built of stone 
which formerly made the outer, highly polished 
covering of the pyramid of Cheops. It is a very 
imposing building, and it is said that when the 
architect who built it had completed his work, his 
hands were chopped off, that he might not build 
another more beautiful. The burial-place of Sul- 
tan Hassan, said to be on the spot where he was 
murdered, is entered from the court through a 
lofty archway, leading into the chamber which con- 
tains the tomb. Fairholt says of this mosque, "It 
abounds with the most enriched details of ornament 
within and without : not the least remarkable of 
its fittings being the rows of colored-glass lamps 
hanging from the walls, of Syrian manufacture, 
bearing the Sultan's name, amid colored decora- 
tions ; they are some of the finest early glass-work 
of their kind, but many are broken, and others 
hanging unsafely from half corroded chains. 

The dynasty of Saladin endured but about one 
hundred and twenty years. In 1382 the Barghite 
dynasty was founded by Barcok, who named it for 



328 The Arab Conquest. 

the Barghites, a class of Mameluke garrison troops, 
thus called to distinguish them from the troops in 
active service. Barcok was a good Sultan, though 
an usurper, and proved himself a benefactor to his 
subjects. 

The close of the fourteenth century was much dis- 
turbed in the Orient by the strife between Tamer- 
lane, the chief of the Monguls and Tartars, and 
Bajazet, the leader of the Ottomans. For a time 
it seemed that Egypt must become an ally or per- 
haps a tributary to one of these warriors, but it 
retained its independence and continued under the 
Barghite dynasty until 1517, when the Turks con- 
quered the Egyptians, and the country was once 
more a province of a foreign power. At first, the 
Turkish government, called the Porte, thus organ- 
ized its service in Egj r pt. The Pasha or Viceroy 
was at its head ; the Sheik or governor of Cairo 
was chosen from the Mameluke Be)'S, and presided 
over the affairs of the provinces of the country ; 
the Janizary Aga was the commander of the Jani- 
zaries ; the Defturdar was the accountant-general ; 
the Emir el Hadgi was the conductor of the cara- 
van ; the Emir el Said was the governor of Upper 
Egypt, and the Sheik el Bekheri was the governor 
of the Sherifs. 



Rise of the Beys. 329 

This first, and well conceived organization, was 
gradually changed, and finally, twenty-four Beys 
superintended the districts into which the kingdom 
was divided, and each one collected the revenues 
of his own district; this gave these Beys an 
influence which rendered them formidable, and 
permitted their indulgence of an insolence not at 
all in harmony with the prejudices of their ruler. 
But the Pashas and military officials became tools 
in the hands of the Beys, on account of the reward 
given by the latter, and, in short, one set of officers 
after another yielded themselves as tools of the 
Beys, being governed by avarice or other sinister 
motives. In the beginning these governors or 
Beys had each a few slaves ; this appeared to be a 
necessity in order that they might command the 
respect of the people over whom they were placed ; 
but the slaves were materially increased until the 
force under each Bey made him truly independent, 
in an alarming degree, of the power which had creat- 
ed his office and chosen him to fill it. 

Again, when a vacancy occurred in a province, 
a neighboring Bey frequently filled it with his 
favorite Mameluke, Avho, thereafter was but a tool 
in the hand of the master who had thus exalted 
him. These particulars will indicate the means by 



330 The Arab Conquest. 

which it came about at last that the most capable 
and active Beys held great influence in the govern- 
ment, their Mamelukes being the most efficient and 
reliable soldiers and subordinate officials in the 
country. 

The history of Egypt, from the establishment of 
the Ottoman power down to the time of the 
French invasion, is merely an account of the quar- 
rels, more or less serious, between the Sultans, 
Pashas and Bej^s. There were many revolts, num- 
berless murders, sometimes actions which could be 
dignified by the name of battles, always the most 
cruel and diabolical acts concealed by an appear- 
ance of fair dealing, and, in short, a sickening 
chapter of what can be done by ignorant and ambi- 
tious men when they are in power. Meanwhile, 
the common people were oppressed to the very dust ; 
taxes were extorted by the koorbash from starving 
men; disease and pestilence swept through the 
land, and the ravages of these last were past belief, 
for, as the Mohammedan faith in predestination 
was absolute, no care was even used to prevent or 
remedy disease. Taken all in all, there was at 
this period in Egypt, a degradation for exceeding 
any that had come to her under any preceding 
foreign masters. 



Cost of the Pashalik. 331 

One cause of the extremely oppressive taxation 
was the enormous cost bj which the Pasha main- 
tained his position. It is said, upon good authority, 
to have cost each Pasha at least four hundred 
thousand crowns before he obtained his office 
from the Sultan, and was established in Cairo. 
The yearly demands of the Sultan were enormous ; 
six hundred thousand crowns must be sent to Con- 
stantinople, besides supplies of sugar, rice, spices, 
coffee, and so on, for the Seraglio ; then the Pasha 
of Egypt was compelled to pay the expenses of the 
annual caravans to Mecca from both Egypt and 
Damascus, and to send with them one hundred 
thousand crowns in specie for the costs upon the 
route ; and it must be remembered that in addition 
to these the entire support of the Egyptian govern- 
ment and army was drawn from the Egyptian 
tributes. 

One great source of income to the Pashas was 
the result of the pestilence, for all the lands owned 
by those who died from the plague reverted to the 
Pasha, who sold them to the highest bidder at 
public sale, — and as it often happened that one 
purchaser after another died in quick succession, 
the same lands were sold again and again, and at 
such prices that the purchasers were forced to farm 



332 The Arab Conquest. 

them out at extortionate rates, in order to obtain 
any return upon their capital* Such a system must 
inevitably reduce any country to beggary, and the 
riches of ancient Egj^pt must have passed all power 
of telling, or the country would have come to 
naught much sooner than it did. 

The above facts give an outline of the system 
followed by the officers of the Porte, but the 
details, the petty modes of increasing the revenue 
were almost numberless, and though many unlaw- 
ful acts were perpetrated by the Beys and Janis- 
saries which were made causes of complaint to the 
Sultan, no means were used for the reform of these 
abuses. The state of affairs was more desperate 
in Upper than Lower Egypt, since that country 
was subject to the inroads of the Arabs in addition 
to all other burdens. 

The magnificence of the Pashas and Beys was 
almost unsurpassed. The Beys seldom appeared 
on their dail} r promenades except they rode 
superbly caparisoned horses, with trappings em- 
broidered in gold and silver, followed by thirty or 
forty youths, all equally mounted and marching 
with that peculiarly grand and dignified carriage 
of the Turks. The chief Beys, such as the com- 
mander of the Mecca caravan, and those in the 










V ETCHING FIELDS IN EGYPT. 



Cairo. 335 

higher offices, seldom appeared with less than three 
hundred attendants, all of whom were fitted out 
in true oriental magnificence. 

Under this government, architecture, and every- 
thing which may be included under the general 
term of art, fell into a despicable condition. The 
present city of Cairo was founded in 969, and four 
years later the walls and many buildings were 
completed. This could not have been done had 
not much material been stripped from the edifices 
and pyramids of ancient builders ; even to this day 
paving stones are seen upon which are hieroglyphics 
and traces of antique sculptures. Cairo is situated 
about a mile from the river, on a sandy plain at 
the foot of a mountain, and has a much hotter 
climate than other places in the same latitude, 
indeed, in the summer season the heat is almost 
unendurable. Since the opening of the Suez Canal 
many streets have been widened, Ezbekieh Square 
has put on the appearance of a Parisian park, whole 
blocks of houses and shops are fac-similes of those 
most approved on the continent, and much that 
was characteristic has passed away forever. But 
in the old portions of Cairo the streets are little 
more than lanes in width, and the houses ugly and 
uncomfortable in the extreme, with few exceptions. 



336 The Arab Conquest. 

They are generally of stone in the lower part with 
the upper stories in wood, or unburnt bricks, or 
earth whitened with lime. They are built around 
a court with no windows on the street, and without 
ornament, besides lacking the airiness that one 
would naturally look for in such a climate. 

The courts are sometimes made attractive by 
plashing fountains, shadj^ palms, and the plants 
which grow and flower luxuriantly with little care ; 
but the apartments, with perhaps the exception of 
a single salon, where guests are received, are bare 
and comfortless. Cairo is the city of mosques ; 
those with minarets or towers are numbered by 
hundreds while there are many more humble ones, 
in reality chapels or oratories. Some of these 
mosques are very beautiful. One of the oldest is 
that of the Sultan Touloon, built in 879, before 
the walls of the city were laid. It is interesting 
to note that this mosque had pointed arches at least 
two centuries before they were introduced into 
England. 

There is a legend that Abraham had sacrificed, 
upon the site of this mosque, that ram which 
appeared to him when he was about to slay his son 
Isaac. It is built around a large open court, with 
rows of pillars surrounding it. This is a very 



Mosques. 



337 



interesting building, though it has small claims to 
being called beautiful The mosque of Sultan 
Hassan has already been spoken of. That of 




DISTANT VIEW OF CAIRO, WITH THE CITADEL AND THE PYRA- 
MIDS OF GIZEH AND SAKKARA. 

Mohammed Ali is the only one that is not falling 
into decay. Various reasons have been given for 
this, such as a decline in religious zeal, and a super- 
stitious hesitation to touch the work of the builders 



338 The Arab Conquest. 

who lived so long ago ; but the truth probably is, 
that the Sultans have taken the riches of the 
mosques for other uses, and the government has 
now no money with which to repair the decaying 
city. The mosque of the great Mohammed Ali is 
on the same eminence with the citadel of Cairo, 
which is a sharp projection of the Mokattam hills. 
It is built of oriental alabaster from Tel el amarna, 
and is very beautiful. Without it is unfinished, 
but within it is gorgeous ; the alabaster is in large 
panels and so highly polished as to be dazzling in 
effect. The floor is covered with Turkej' rugs, and 
the tomb of Mohammed Ali is in a quiet corner, 
very near the scenes of some of the most important 
events of his life. 

From the citadel the entire city may be seen; 
palaces, minarets, groves, gardens, cupolas, all are 
spread out ; to the north and west are the fertile 
plains of the Nile valley, while to the south the 
river, separated into its branches, flows towards the 
Mediterranean. The so-called " Joseph's Well," is 
also on the citadel hill. It is in fact two wells, 
one below the other ; the lower one is two hun- 
dred and sixty feet deep. A winding staircase 
leads to the bottom. Horses and oxen are used to 
turn the machinery which raises the water, and on 




MOSQUE OF SAID. 



The Ulema. 341 

account of the narrowness of the staircase they are 
taken down when small, and pass their lives there. 

At the close of the eighteenth century the citadel 
of Cairo was the residence of the Pasha, and there 
was seen all his pomp and state. Its court-yard 
was the rendezvous for the magnificent Beys whose 
houses were in the town below, and there, with 
their, attendants, their richly caparisoned steeds, 
and their splendid costumes and glittering arms, 
they made an imposing assemblage. 

The highest and most intelligent class among 
the Arabs is that of the Ulema, or the hierarchy 
composed of the imans, or ministers of religion; 
the muftis, or the doctors of law ; and the cadis, or 
the administrators of justice. The Ulema of Cairo, 
at the time of which we speak, managed the 
revenues of the mosques and the charitable institu- 
tions, which were then numerous and important. 
They governed themselves by the doctrines of the 
Koran, intelligently understood; they esteemed 
virtue and honor, and were governed by motives 
widely differing from those of the Mameluke Beys, 
and while they lived in a style befitting men of 
superiority and position they avoided the luxury 
and grand establishments of the Beys. 

Trade was flourishing in Egypt, and merchants 



342 



The Arab Conquest. 



held an honorable position ; the bazaars of Cairo 
were filled with the products of the East ; the 
Latakia tobacco, the dates of Nubia, the sweet- 




MOSQCE OF MOHAMMED ALT IN THE CITADEL. 

meats of Damascus, and the odors of the Fayoum 
were seen together ; in another part the satins 
of Aleppo and the fabrics of India were mingled 
with the rich stuffs from the continent, brought by 
the Venetian merchants. All these things and many 
more were required for the Beys and their harems, 



The Ulema. 



343 



but taken as a country, the commercial importance 
of Egypt was much diminished by the removal of 
the Levantine trade from Alexandria to Aleppo, 
and at the end of the eighteenth century Alexan- 
dria had little more than eight thousand inhabitants, 




and it was not until the revolution created hj steam 
navigation that Egypt resumed a commercial 
consequence. 

Siout, on the Upper Nile, was then an important 



344 The Arab Conquest. 

place, because there the caravans from Darfour 
arrived and departed, and the trade in gums, ivory, 
and other articles from the upper country was there 
transacted, the natives being the traders here ; they 
also took the goods down to Rosetta or Alexandria, 
where the Frank traders received their supplies. 

Such Avas the state of Egypt when Napoleon I., in 
1797, addressed the squadron of Admiral Brueys as 
follows : " Comrades, as soon as Ave have pacified 
the continent, Ave shall unite ourselves to you, in 
order to conquer the liberty of the seas. Without 
you we can carry the glory of the French name only 
into a little corner of the continent ; with you A\ r e 
will traverse the seas, and the national glory Avill 
see regions still more distant." 



CHAPTER XL 

THE FRENCH INVASION, FROM 1798 TO 1801. 

BEFORE entering upon the French Invasion 
of Egypt, led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, 
it is well to understand that the plan was not origi- 
nal with that great general. 

The same undertaking had been so seriously con- 
templated in the time of Louis XV. that plans had 
been projected for it, which were found by Talley- 
rand among the state papers and submitted by 
him to Bonaparte. All preparations were made 
for this expedition with great secrecy, in the ports 
of Genoa, Civita Vecchia, Corsica and Toulon, 
while troops were assembled in France and Italy. 

Finally, in May 1798, Napoleon proceeded to 
Toulon, and took command of the expedition. 
When everything was in readiness he embarked 

345 



346 The French Invasion. 

with his staff in Z' Orient, a three-decker, which 
carried one hundred and twenty guns ; they were 
accompanied by twenty ships of different sizes, 
and more than three hundred transports, with Vice- 
Admiral Brueys in command of all. More than 
a hundred artists, scientists, and men of letters 
went with them, besides a corps of professional 
engineers. 

The fleet arrived near Alexandria the first of 
July. The troops were disembarked, and the 
leader soon possessed himself of the city, and made 
an alliance with Mohammed Kerim, the chief 
magistrate of Alexandria, to whom the French 
leader represented that the object of the expedition 
was to re-establish in Egypt the authority of the 
Porte, which had been usurped by the Mamelukes. 
Napoleon proceeded to land his stores with great 
despatch, and to make Alexandria the base of his 
operations. He feared the arrival of the British 
fleet under Nelson, who, he had good reason to 
believe, as was indeed true, was already in pursuit 
of him. The energy with which preparations were 
made was simplj r miraculous ; the men of science 
quickly organized their labors, the geographers 
commenced their plans and maps, the medical staff 
was efficiently constituted, and as soon as the 




MONEY-CHANGER AT SIOUT. 



Famous Proclamation. 349 

printing press could be landed, Napoleon issued 
his famous proclamation, published in Arabic, as 
follows : — 

" In the name of God the Merciful and Indul- 
gent. There is no god but God. He has no Son, 
and reigns without a partner. On the part of the 
French Republic, established on the principles of 
libertj^, and on the part of the General-in-chief, 
Bonaparte the Great, the Emir of the French 
Armies, we make known to all the inhabitants of 
Egypt, that for a long time back the Beys who 
govern this country overwhelm the French nation 
with contempt and opprobrium, and cause their 
merchants to experience weary exactions and injus- 
tice. But the hour of their chastisement is come. 

" For a long time back, this troop of Mame- 
lukes, drawn from Circassia and Georgia, tyran- 
nizes over the fairest spot of the globe ; but the 
Lord of the Worlds, whose power extends every- 
where, has ordained the termination of their power. 
Egyptians ! you will be told that I come here with 
the design to overthrow your religion, but this is a 
gross falsehood. Do not believe it. Answer the 
impostors that I have come to restore } r our rights, 
which have been invaded by usurpers — that I 
adore God more than the Mamelukes, and that I 



350 The French Invasion. 

respect the Prophet Mohammed and the noble 
Koran. Tell them that all men are equal before 
God — that intelligence, virtue, and science, are 
the only distinctions between them. What intel- 
ligence then, what virtues, what sciences, dis- 
tinguish them from other men, and render them 
worthy of possessing all that constitutes the hap- 
piness of life ? 

" Wherever there is a fertile land,^ it belongs to 
the Mamelukes ; the most costly dresses, the hand- 
somest slaves, the most agreeable houses belong 
to them. If Egypt is their farm, let them show 
the lease that God has given them for it. But 
God is merciful and just, and henceforth all will be 
able to arrive at the most elevated functions ; 
henceforth the most intelligent, virtuous, and 
learned will direct public affairs, and in this way 
the people will be happy. 

" Cadis, Sheikhs, Imans, Tchorbajis, tell the peo- 
ple we are friends of the true Mussulmans. Have 
we not destroyed the Pope, who says that war 
ought to be made upon the Mussulmans ? Have we 
not discharged the Knights of Malta, because 
these bigots believed that God required them to 
raise their swords against the Mussulmans ? 

"Happy those, therefore, who will promptly 




CAMEL- DRIVER. 



March to Cairo. 853 

unite with us, for they shall be exalted. Happy 
those who remain neutral in their dwellings, with- 
out troubling themselves about the two parties 
that dispute possession of the country. When 
they come to know us better they will proffer us a 
cordial union. But woe to those who join the 
Mamelukes. Every vestige of them shall disap- 
pear from the face of the earth." 

Napoleon (leaving General Kleber in command 
at Alexandria) next moved his army upon Cairo. 
The march thither was one of great suffering to 
the French soldiers — hunger, thirst, heat, all were 
insupportable. They left Alexandria at evening, 
on the seventh of July, and arrived before the Pyra- 
mids, near Cairo, on the twenty-first of the same 
month. Cairo had been the scene of intense 
excitement since the landing of the French army 
had been known there, and all possible preparations 
had been made by Ibrahim Bey for the defence of 
the city against the invaders. But all in vain, the 
Battle of the Pyramids proved a signal defeat for 
the Egyptians, and the night following it was one 
of dreadful horror. Within the city of Cairo con- 
fusion prevailed ; a panic of fear had seized upon 
all, and to flee was the one idea. Those who could 



354 The French Invasion. 

command horses or other animals departed, bear- 
ing their treasures with them ; others were on foot, 
and it seemed that Cairo would he deserted by all 
but those who were too poor and miserable to have 
any object in going. The terror was increased by 
the report that the French had burned' Boulak and 
Djizeh, and the fear that the same fate would be 
visited upon Cairo. This report arose from the 
burning by the French of the boats which they had 
used between the island of Roclah and Djizeh. 

Those who succeeded in leaving the city soon 
met new dangers outside. They were attacked by 
Arabs, their animals seized, the riches they had 
managed to bear away were stolen, and many were 
even stripped of their clothing and left naked by 
the way. " Never was there a more cruel night," 
says Abderrahman Gabarty, " the ear hears the 
recital of deeds, the sight of which could not be 
supported by the eye." 

The following day the city formally submitted 
to Napoleon, and he represented to the people that 
he only desired " that the French should live in 
amity with the Egyptian people and the Ottoman 
Porte, and that the customs and the religious 
usages of the country should be scrupulously re- 
spected." That evening the French w r ere installed 



Napoleon enters Cairo. 355 

in the citadel of Cairo, and the struggle here was 
ended. The passions of the excited populace now 
vented themselves upon the Mamelukes ; their 
power was ended ; their palaces and houses were 
plundered and burned, and large amounts of prop- 
erty were destroyed in spite of the efforts of the 
French to restrain them. 

On the twenty-fifth of July, Napoleon entered 
Cairo, and established himself and his troops in 
such comfort as brought courage and good spirits to 
replace the weariness and discouragement which 
the hardships of their march from Alexandria had 
caused them to feel. " The civilians and the corps 
of savans were satisfied, and even gay; for after 
thirsty marches over scorching sands, and exposure 
to the sun in Nile-boats, with water-melons or indi- 
gestible cakes of half-pulverized and half-baked 
dates for food, they now enjoyed white bread and 
all the luxuries of the table." 

A proclamation compelled all to wear the tri- 
colored cockade, which produced a novel effect 
upon the many oriental garbs of Cairo. European 
discipline soon established order, and for the 
moment Cairo was at ease, and amused, for the 
gay and charming manners of the French soon ren- 
dered them popular with the very people whom 



356 The French Invasion. 

they had conquered. This overthrow of the 
Mamelukes may be said to have formed the be- 
ginning of the modern history of Egypt. A native 
Divan was formed, state and municipal govern- 
ments were established, a police system inaugurat- 
ed ; and every practicable measure taken to bring 
about good order. 

Tradesmen, artists and mechanics, who had 
accompanied the invaders, began to establish them- 
selves, and even coinage was resumed, for Cairo 
had shared with Constantinople the privilege of 
making money. Bonaparte used the old dies bear- 
ing the name of Selim III., the ruling Sultan. 

A great impression had been made on the minds 
of the Moslems, fatalists as they were, by the 
defeat of Murad Bey, whom they had believed 
invincible, and following that event, the utter 
discomfiture of Ibrahim Bey. But Xapoleon was 
not yet content with what had been done, and 
resolved to. drive Ibrahim Bey (who had made a 
halt at Bilbeis with his Mamelukes) into the 
desert. General Leclerc was sent with troops to 
attack this formidable enemy. The battles of 
Elhankeh and Salahieh were fought and no abso- 
lute victory was obtained by the French, but 
Ibrahim Bey retired to Acre and joined the Djez- 



Achmed Pasha. 357 

zar there, which act virtually surrendered Egypt 
to the French. 

This Djezzar (or Butcher) was named Achmed 
Pasha, and received the above title on account of 
his cruelty — all along the way the Mamelukes were 
taunted with cowardice for having surrendered 
Egypt to the enemies of Islamism, and there is no 
doubt but that Ibrahim Bey did what he could to 
kindle the fearful hatred of the French in the 
heart of the Djezzar, which he poured out with 
such fury when Napoleon laid siege to Acre, in 
March 1799. It is said that this monster sat on 
the floor of his palace and paid for every French 
head that was brought to him, until he was sur- 
rounded by piles of these gory trophies. 

The French had scarcely made themselves com- 
fortable in Cairo, before news arrived of the appear- 
ance of the British fleet off the Bay of Aboukir, 
and soon that engagement took place which proved 
so disastrous to the French. Just before this 
battle Nelson declared, "By this time to-morrow I 
shall have gained a peerage, or Westminster Ab- 
bey." 

It requires no great wisdom to see that from the 
day of the battle of Aboukir, the fate of the 
French expedition was sealed ; the fleet destroyed, 



358 



The French Invasion. 



the army could not return to France ; the British 
maintained such a watch that no reinforcements 
could reach their opponents, and though by a series 
of stratagems such as Bonaparte alone could have 

conceived and execut- 
ed, they might for a 
time exist in Egypt, yet 
in the end only defeat 
could result. 

This great general 
proceeded to assure 
himself that the rise of 
the Nile had been such 
that no famine would 
occur, and he then com- 
manded the old cere- 
mony of the cutting of 
the canal at Cairo to be 
carefully observed, and 
surrounded by his staff in brilliant holiday attire, 
as well as by the most prominent Moslems of the 
city, he witnessed the spectacle. . 

He even made; it his care to provide money for 
the celebration of the birth-day of the Prophet, 
and by every possible means endeavored to induce 




A SHADOOF. 



Execution of Kerim, 359 

the belief that he was a sincere convert to Moham- 
medanism. 

Bonaparte had allowed Said Mohammed Kerim, 
who had held office under Murad Bey, to remain 
in a prominent position in the administration of 
affairs in Alexandria. It was soon discovered that 
he was in correspondence with the Mamelukes ; 
he was arrested, sentenced to pay three hundred 
thousand francs, or lose his head. He refused to 
pay the fine, saying, with fatalist reasoning, " If I 
am to die now, nothing can save me, and I should 
be giving away my piastres uselessly ; if I am not 
to die, why should I give them at all? " 

After his execution his head was paraded through 
the streets, thus labelled, " Kerim, Sherif of Alex- 
andria, condemned to death for having violated 
the oaths of fidelity he had taken to the French Re- 
public, and for having maintained correspondence 
with the Mamelukes, to whom he was a spy. 
Thus shall be punished all traitors and perjurers." 

The Mohammedans regarded Kerim as a martyr ; 
discontents began to arise ; curses were whispered, 
but they were deep ; and an intense distrust of 
all the promises and pretensions of the French 
possessed every inhabitant of the land. The new 
regulations in all departments of the government 



360 The French Invasion. 

were not comprehended by the Orientals, and such 
measures as were in fact most advantageous for 
them were regarded with suspicion ; the new laws 
and usages concerning women were so abominable 
in their eyes that they could not submit to them ; 
the sanitary regulations and the interference with 
intermural burials added fury to their already 
excited feelings, and, Paton saj^s, "It was with 
their hearts filled with gall and bitterness that the 
Ulema and Delegates lent themselves to the delib- 
erations of a council held under infidel auspices. 
The news of a Turkish army marching towards 
Egypt ; the relaxation of manners which had 
resulted from the wives and daughters of Moslems 
going into the streets with their faces uncovered ; 
the public sale of wine ; the demolition of mosques 
and minarets ; the levelling of cemeteries, to carry 
out works of improvement which were regarded as 
calamities and innovations; the removal of the 
internal gates of the streets ; the active prepara- 
tions made by General Cafarelli for covering the 
mounds round Cairo with forts, the completion of 
which would render a general rising more difficult ; 
and, last of all, the letters from Achmed Pasha of 
Acre, containing positive assurances of support, 



Revolt at Cairo, 361 

combined to determine the people of Cairo to try 
their fortunes in a general rising." This revolt 
occurred on the twenty-second of October, and 
was of such proportions as to require three days of 
great activity on the part of the French to put it 
down, even with their discipline, their superior 
arms and other advantages. The Egyptians were 
at length subdued and again appeared to be sub- 
missive, but the French did not relax their vigi- 
lance; forts were built; the manufacture of powder 
was established ; an armory was fitted up ; a 
dromedary corps organized, and mills erected for 
the grinding of flour. 

The French had tried their arts of pleasing 
without success ; they even adopted oriental cos- 
tumes and customs, but do what they would, they 
instinctively felt that might alone preserved their 
lives. The soldiers were often disheartened ; they 
were cut off from all correspondence with their 
friends at home by the vigilance of the British 
fleet, and the monotony of their lives afforded 
them many hours for thought and regret. 

Napoleon found a resource in the Institute of 
Egypt, which was founded at Cairo by the learned 
men whom he had brought with him. Among its 
members were such men as Monge, Fourier, An- 



362 The French Invasion. 

dreassi, Le Pere, Nouet, Lancret, Desgenettes, 
Larrej^, and many others. 

However much is to be regretted in connection 
with the French invasion of Egypt, the formation 
of this Institute, and the studies and researches of 
its members, must ever throw a bright light upon 
its dark surroundings, and demand admiration of 
that trait in Napoleon Bonaparte which led him, 
in the midst of all his cares and anxieties, to 
remember and protect the interests of science and 
learning. The researches of the Institute were 
extended to every department of scholarly investi- 
gation, and these men seem to have forgotten, 
in their devotion to their pursuits, the manifold 
dangers which surrounded them. 

Considerable attention was given to the con- 
sideration of a project for making a Suez Canal, 
and various surveys were made with this object in 
view; the antiquities of Egypt afforded a most 
fascinating field for scholarly research, and the 
vivacious writer and clever artist, Vivant Denon, 
drew the first outline, with brush and pen, of that 
which has since been so well finished and filled in 
by Rosellini, Champollion, Wilkinson, Lepsius, 
Brugsch, and many others. 

While these peaceful pursuits occupied the 



Syrian Campaign. 365 

French in Lower Egypt, Desaix, with his com- 
mand, was in pursuit of Murad Bey, the Mameluke 
chieftain, in Upper Egypt. All the ups and 
downs of this expedition will not be recounted ; 
in the end Desaix was successful and established 
such defences at Assouan as gave security to 
those who held it. The Mamelukes had been 
driven to the desert, and were pursued no farther. 

When Napoleon went to Suez he obtained such 
information as led him to believe that the Porte 
was preparing to attack him on the Syrian border 
of Egypt, and thus undertake to reconquer the 
country. 

He resolved to meet his enemies on Syrian 
rather than Egyptian soil, and his famous Syrian 
expedition was decided on. The Syrians were not 
Moslems, and Napoleon, who was by this time 
convinced of the impossibility of affiliating with 
the disciples of the Prophet, hoped to draw the 
mountain tribes of Syria into a genuine alliance 
with him against the Turks. These tribes held no 
common creed, and had never united themselves 
against the Ottoman power ; neither were they ever 
submissive to it, as were the Copts of Egypt ; they 
were sometimes in open revolt; always ready to 
enroll themselves under the banner of a successful 



366 The French Invasion. 

general, and in them Bonaparte thought to find 
strong allies. 

Another argument in favor of the occupation of 
Syria was founded upon the extent of sea-coast 
which would thus be available to the French, and 
by which they might hope to communicate with 
the continent, for while it was a simple matter for 
the British to blockade Alexandria, a more ex- 
tended coast could not be easily kept under strict 
surveillance. 

Therefore, after arranging the affairs of Egypt 
as best he could, Napoleon, in February, 1799, 
took the larger part of his army into Syria. They 
first encountered the hunger, thirst and heat of the 
desert, and suffered much before they reached El 
Arish, a fort which, though miserable in itself, was 
important as a boundary stronghold between 
Egypt and Syria : this was soon in possession of 
the French, who pushed on with all possible speed 
to Jaffa. The attack of that city, the hand to 
hand conflicts in its streets, the surrender of the 
four thousand Arnauts who had entrenched them- 
selves in a strong khan, their subsequent butchery 
in cool blood by the unwilling soldiers at the 
command of Bonaparte ; all this horrible story is 
well known. " The course pursued on this occa- 



Taking of Jaffa. 367 

sion was a summons to eveiy place in Syria to 
unfurl the black banner of " no surrender ; " and 
to this summons Acre responded, a few weeks 
later, with an energy that astonished all Europe. 
With the appalling fate of Jaffa before their eyes, 
no garrison was likely to surrender, so long as the 
crumbling corner of a wall remained erect ; and 
there was no Moslem who could hold a pike who 
would not prefer death in the excitement of combat 
to a repetition of the despairing scenes on the 
sands of Jaffa. 

Napoleon wrote to Cairo a full account of the 
taking of Jaffa, in which he said that more than 
four thousand soldiers had been killed in combat. 
He added, " The inhabitants of Jaffa did not know 
that arms were of no avail against the will of God," 
and then, " Egyptians ! submit yourselves to his 
decrees, obey his commandments, and acknowledge 
that the world is his property, and that he gives it 
to whomsoever he pleases." 

Bonaparte sent a letter to the Sheikhs of Jeru- 
salem concerning the surrender of that city, and 
received the reply that " they were subjects of the 
Pasha of Acre, and when he had conquered that 
city Jerusalem should be delivered to him." The 
French army now proceeded to Acre, which was 



368 The French Invasion. 

the home of that Djezzar, before spoken of, who 
was the Pasha of Sidon, and as such, in reality had 
made himself quite independent of the power of 
the Sultan. His cruelty was well known, and his 
subjects, many of whom went about with mutilated 
ears, noses and limbs, were a continual witness to 
his savage instincts. This man determined never 
to surrender, was well backed by Sir Sidney Smith 
with a British fleet, who not only did all in his 
power to harass the French by a constant fire from 
his ships, but also seized the gunboats which were 
bringing battering cannon and siege equipage to 
them. 

The army of Bonaparte was before Acre from the 
eighteenth of March until the twentieth of May, 
when, with all possible secrecy of preparation, it was 
drawn off and a retreat to Jaffa commenced. The 
history of this Syrian campaign scarcety belongs to 
a history of Egypt, and yet, as it was undertaken to 
prevent a war in Egypt, it cannot be entirely dis- 
connected from our subject, but must be passed 
with a very general and insufficient sketch. Be- 
fore Acre the best officers of the French army were 
cut down by disease or the chances of war, and all 
sorts of maladies belonging to the country attacked 
them. Upon its retreat the army presented a soul- 



Horrible Suffering. 



369 



harrowing spectacle ; there were sick men for 
whom no means of transport could be furnished, 
their wounds were alive with vermin, as is proved 
by the report of the surgeon-general, Larrey ; to 
leave them meant a death by Turkish torture, 




NILE BOAT. 



and there is much reason for believing that many 
were poisoned. 

At Jaffa the hospitals were full of plague-stricken 
wretches — here, again, poison was called in to 
finish the work of war and hardship, and at last, 



370 The French Invasion. 

with a remnant of his army, Napoleon entered 
Cairo, which seemed to those who were left to tell 
the tale of this horrible campaign, like the " land 
flowing with milk and honey." Whoever has seen 
in the Louvre, that picture by Antoine Jean Gros, 
of " Napoleon visiting the sick at Jaffa," must 
have one scene of this Syrian tragedy stamped 
upon his memory. We are told that Bonaparte 
cried out there, " In a few hours the Turks will be 
here ; let all those who have strength enough rise 
and come along with us ; they shall be carried on 
litters and horses." Profound silence and the dead 
stupor of the sick men was the only answer. 

The joy of the return to Cairo was too great to 
be entirely suppressed, even by the thought of the 
many who had been left behind, and the Egyptians, 
who had received full accounts of all that had 
occurred, were surprised to see this army come 
from the desert, and enter the city in full parade 
order, after four such months as it had passed 
through. 

During the Syrian campaign the Mamelukes 
had again made themselves felt in Upper Egypt, 
and Napoleon had scarcely time to reorganize his 
demoralized troops before he saw signs which con- 
vinced him that Murad Bey had determined to 



Battle of Aboukir. 371 

reach the coast with his forces, to combine with the 
Turks, who counted on joining him there. Imme- 
diately the French attacked a large body of Mam- 
elukes who were passing within a short distance 
of Cairo, and were so completely routed that in 
their flight they left enormous amounts of baggage 
and seven hundred camels behind. Their food was 
left cooking on the fire, and Osman Bey, their 
leader, escaped in his shirt, forgetting letters from 
Ibrahim Bey which disclosed to the enemy their 
plans for joining forces. The Mamelukes were 
pursued in various directions, and Bonaparte him- 
self led an attack on Murad Bey when he 
encamped near the Pyramids of Gizeh, and routed 
him completely. In the midst of all this, on July 
fifteenth, news came that the Turks had landed at 
Aboukir four days before. Hasty preparations were 
made and in ten days, on July twenty-fifth, that 
great battle of the French and the combined Turks 
and British was fought. The victory was with the 
French, but in the hour of triumph the strange 
mind of Napoleon thought not of that, a new 
resolve was made — he would return to France ! 

Scarcely a month passed before he had made his 
plans secretly, and succeeded in carrying out his 
design, for on August twenty-third he sailed from 



372 The French Invasion. 

Rosetta, taking with him but a handful of officers 
and savans. 

"Thus ended the residence of Bonaparte in 
Egypt, leaving no foe unconquered from the 
Cataracts to the Mediterranean, from the Red 
Sea to the sands of Libya ; but at the same time 
leaving, for the interests of France, nothing per- 
manent, nothing consolidated. The colonization 
of Egypt was a failure, in spite of the vast genius 
of the conqueror. But the name of Bonaparte, 
like those of the heroes of Greece, Rome, and 
Arabia, will ever be associated with one of the 
great landmarks of Egyptian history.*' 

One important fact had certainly been estab- 
lished by Xapoleon — the Mameluke power, which 
had ruled Egypt since its establishment by Sftla- 
din, was at an end, and to fill the space thus left 
vacant, an organization gradually arose, which was 
liberal and far-seeing enough to unite with the 
enterprise and genius of Europe in restoring to 
Egypt the transit between the Mediterranean Sea 
and India. 

Bonaparte had left General Kleber as com- 
mander-in-chief, and the rage of this brave man 
when he realized how he had been duped and 



General Kleber. 373 

deserted by the wily Bonaparte, can be better 
imagined than described. 

In the dispatch left for Kleber, Bonaparte said, 
that he left Egypt on account of the news he had 
received from Italy ; he promised to send recruits 
and military supplies to him ; he permitted him to 
make peace with the Porte (even though the 
evacuation of Egypt should be a stipulation of the 
treaty) if he should lose flfteeen hundred more 
men, or if he did not receive aid from France 
before the following May. 

Kleber first drew up a statement of the circum- 
stances under which Napoleon had left him, the 
other officers, and the soldiers whom he had led 
into Egypt, It was a calmly bitter recital of the 
facts, which were bad enough. A portion of it 
follows : 

" General Bonaparte departed for France on the 
Sixth Fructidor, without informing anybody ; and 
besides sending me a letter, addressed another to 
the Grand Vizier at Constantinople, although he 
knew perfectly well that he had arrived already at 
Damascus. 

" The armed force has been reduced to one-half 
since his arrival in Egypt, occupying the principal 



374 The French Invasion. 

points from El Arish and Alexandria to the 
Cataracts. 

"Our enemies are no longer merely the Mame- 
lukes, but three great powers — the Porte, the Eng- 
lish and the Russians. The deficiency in arms and 
ammunition is as alarming as the diminution in 
men. The manufactories of arms and powder are 
unproductive ; while the troops, from want of 
clothing, are subject to the severe diseases of the 
country. With a deficit of almost twelve millions 
of francs, the resource of extraordinary taxes has 
been forestalled by my predecessor. 

"The Mamelukes are dispersed, but not de- 
stroyed ; Murad Bey is always in Upper Egypt, with 
a sufficient number of men to incessantly occupy 
a part of our forces. The Grand Vizier, with his 
army, has advanced from Damascus to Acre ; and 
Bonaparte's allusion to the French army is suffi- 
ciently indicative of the critical position in which 
I find myself. 

" El Arish is a miserable fort, exposed to any 
invading army ; and Alexandria is not a fortified 
town, but an intrenched camp, partly denuded of 
artillery to fit out the frigates. In this state of 
things, the best measure that I can take is to 
negotiate with the Sultan ; and I have just learned 



G-eneral Kleber. 375 

that a Turkish naval force has appeared before 
Damietta." 

Kleber was a strong man in field and council, 
and he summoned all his powers to aid him to 
make the most of his discouraging position. He 
took his command in September, and after much 
discussion and many negotiations, an agreement 
was made with Sir Sidney Smith, in January, 1800, 
to the effect that the French should evacuate 
Egypt, and should retire with arms and baggage 
to Alexandria, Rosetta and Aboukir, from which 
ports they should embark for France. 

Unhappily this agreement was cancelled by a 
command from Admiral Lord Keith to Sir Sidney 
Smith, forbidding him to allow the French to leave 
Egypt, except as prisoners of war, first surrender- 
ing all their ships and stores and laying down their 
arms. 

This the French refused to do, and hostilities 
were resumed. Kleber, through many difficulties, 
again established his power at Boulak and Cairo, 
and through dreadful scenes of butchery and horror 
had, early in June, placed himself in comparative 
safety, and made a league with his old opponent, 
Muracl Bey, who feared and did not desire to be 
placed again under Turkish rule. 



376 The French Invasion, 

Just then, when so much had been accomplished, 
when Egypt was freed from Ottoman troops, 
when the Cairenes had been suppressed, when an 
advantageous ally had been gained, and his own 
army had regained its spirit and courage, Kleber 
was assassinated by a young scribe, urged on to 
the deed by an Aga of the Janissaries. 

Kleber's successor was General Men on, a man 
as ill suited to the position as could well have been 
found. He had adopted the religion and manners 
of the Orientals, and had rendered himself extremely 
obnoxious to all his countrymen. As soon as he 
obtained the leadership he endeavored to carry out 
a project of establishing a permanent residence in 
Egypt, and making the country a colony of 
France. 

His plans were not successful with the Moslems 
any more than with the French, for no manner of 
flattery or professions of their religion could ever 
reconcile Orientals to Franks, and all his calling 
himself Abdallah, all his wordy proclamations 
affirming the wisdom and truth of the Koran, all 
his ardent love of their institutions, failed to gain 
for him either their confidence or their respect. 

With the beginning of the year 1801, the British 
government determined to take more active meas- 



Sir Ralph Abercrombie. 377 

ures by which to compel the French to evacuate 
Egypt, and an expedition was fitted out under the 
command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie. 

Marmarice Bay was chosen by Lord Keith as a 
rendezvous for the British fleets. There all the 
troops were landed and systematic preparations 
made for the arduous undertaking which awaited 
them. When all was in order they made sail 
for the Bay of Aboukir, which they entered on 
the first of March. General Abercrombie immedi- 
ately made a reconnoisance, and in a week had pos- 
sessed himself of the eminences which, commanded 
the shore, and this he accomplished under full fire 
from the French. On the thirteenth he had 
driven his enemies within the city of Alexandria. 

On the twenty-first General Menou thought to 
surprise the British, but was himself amazed at the 
mode of his reception ; a great battle ensued, and 
the brave Abercrombie received a wound from which 
he died a month later ; but he did not yield to his 
sufferings or leave the field until he saw that the 
British were victorious. 

From this moment the result was inevitable ; 
the beginning of the end of the French Invasion of 
Egypt had come. On the twenty-fifth of March the 
British were joined by six thousand Turkish allies, 



378 The French Invasion, 

among whom was the far-famed Mohammed Ali, 
then but a captain of Albanian mercenary troops. 

We will not follow, step by step, the actions of 
the allies against the French. By the twenty-fifth 
of July all was over ; a capitulation was signed ; the 
evacuation was agreed upon, and the French were 
to be conveyed to a port of France. The British 
allowed the savans to retain their instruments of 
art and science, and, upon special request, also left 
to them the various collections which they had 
made. 

The first of September, General Baird (famous 
for his part in extending the British power in 
India) arrived at Cairo with his army of Sepoj's, 
which he had led across the desert to the Nile, and 
thus joined his countrymen in Egypt. 

"Since the days of the dynasty of Saladin, when 
the mailed horsemen of Europe encountered the 
Turk, the Kurd, and the Circassian, no such assem- 
bly of various nations had encamped on the banks 
of this historic stream. But now the Arab had 
sunk to be the slave, or torpid citizen. The high- 
cheeked Tartar Bournau from the plains of Asia, 
muttering his coarse Ouighour, was no longer 
recognizable in the indolent, dignified, modern 
Turk, whose breed was crossed with the blood of 



Mamelukes, 



379 



Greece and of Circassia, and who spoke a language 
strengthened with the vocabulary of the Koran, 
and refined by the elegance of Persian song. 




FRENCH ARMY PASSING THE GREAT SPHINX AFTER THE BATTLE 
OF THE PYRAMIDS. 

There was no Mansourah for the modern Mame- 
lukes. Their battles with Bonaparte were battles 
of spurs — not pitched contests, but races for exist- 
ence. As for the eastern enemies of the Mame- 
lukes, they had disappeared. The great so-called 
Mogul Monarchy, that had shaken to its centre the 
political fabric raised by Saladin, had sunk into 
insignificance, and the heirs of Tamerlane were now 
the proteges of the kings of Britain." 

No time was lost in carrying out the terms of 
the capitulation ; on the third of September the 



380 



The French Invasion, 



English Grenadiers marched into Alexandria, and 
fifteen days later, General Menou and the French 
who wished to go, sailed for home, but several 
hundred converts to Islamism remained behind. 




CHAPTER XII. 

FROM THE TIME OF MOHAMMED ALI TO THAT OF 
ISMAIL KHEDIVE. 

FROM the time of the departure of the French 
from Egypt, the great interest in the history 
of the country centres in the career of Moham- 
med Ali, a man destined to give the last, most 
fatal blow to the Mameluke power, and to bring 
much good to Egypt by a course of action in 
which right and wrong were singularly mingled, 

Mohammed Ali was born in 1769, at Cavala, in 
Macedonia, in Turkey, (now Rumelia). He early 
entered the Turkish army, and at the same time 
was engaged in the tobacco trade in Rumelia, 
He thus showed in his youth a love of the soldier's 
life together Avith great courage — and a hankering 
after trade and its profits. He went to Egypt as 
the commander of three hundred soldiers, but his 

381 



382 



Moh 



am met 



i All 



qualifications for military service soon showed 
themselves, and he was rapidly advanced to the 
command of the Albanian corps, in Egypt. 

The Mamelukes hastened as soon as the French 
had gone, even before the departure of the British, 
to re-assert themselves. They fancied that they had 
only to deal with the Turks as of old, while the 
Turks, on their part, had determined never to allow 
the Mamelukes to resume their rank, and would 
hesitate at nothing in order to make good their 
resolution. 

The first act of the Porte was characteristic of 
Turkish policy. The Capitan Pasha invited the 
principal Mameluke Beys to a conference at Abou- 
kir; there they were magnificently entertained, 
and were then prevailed upon to embark upon a 
large barge, under pretext of holding a consultation 
with the officers of the British fleet. When far 
enough from shore the barge was surrounded by 
armed boats, into one of which the Capitan Pasha 
entered, while the Mamelukes were killed or 
wounded. Capitan Pasha represented to the 
Mamelukes that General Hutchinson was in some 
way connected with this villanous affair. That 
officer was full of indignant wrath, and did all 
in his power to prove the falsity of the accusation; 




THfi DOUM PALM IX KUBIA. 



Yousouff Pasha. 385 

he buried the dead Beys with great care, and 
faithfully nursed the wounded. 

At the same time a similar affair took place at 
Cairo. Yousouff Pasha had pretended friendship 
for the Mamelukes, but he suddenly dispatched his 
emissaries to attack them near Gizeh, and a whole- 
sale slaughter ensued ; in this case, too, the British 
succored the Mamelukes as well as they were able 

It soon appeared that Yousouff Pasha, the new 
Grand Vizier, and Capitan Pasha could not agree, 
and by the efforts of the latter the famous Khous- 
reff Pasha was appointed Governor of Egypt. In 
his service, while fighting the Mamelukes, Moham- 
med Ali first made himself a name, both in Egypt, 
and on the continent of Europe. 

The celerity with which the Mamelukes moved 
was surprising. They were now led by Osman Bey- 
el-Barclissy and Mohammed Bey-el-Elfy, the first 
of whom succeeded in establishing his power over 
a large portion of Egypt before the British left 
Alexandria. 

The Mamelukes had profited greatly by their 
observations of the Continental troops, and their 
mode of warfare was now far superior to that of 
the Turks ; they were also more at home in Egypt 
than the soldiers of the Porte ; the Egyptians had 



386 



Mohammed Alt. 



more confidence in them than in the Turks, be- 
cause they knew them better, and all the prelimi- 
nary circumstances of the struggle about to begin 
were in their favor. 

Alexandria, Cairo, and other large towns re- 
mained under the control of Khousreff Pasha, but 







BRINGING WATER FROM THE NILE. 



his inability to pay the troops induced a revolt ; — he 
was driven from the capital, and as a finale to this 
movement, Mohammed Ali became master of Cairo, 
and made an alliance with the Mamelukes, in order 



Struggles for Power. 387 

to overcome the Governor Khousreff, who had 
established himself at Damietta. By a ruse, Mo- 
hammed obtained possession of this place, and 
Khousreff retired to Lesbeh, at the mouth of the 
Nile, where he was finally obliged to capitulate. 

The foregoing is a good type of the events of 
several months. The Porte sent new officers to 
maintain its authority in Egypt ; Mohammed Ali 
and the Mamelukes, separately, and in concert, 
worked against the Porte, and sometimes against 
each other, until in March 1804, Mohammed Ali 
had so woven his net and set his snares, that 
Bardissy Bey fell into it, and Khurschid Pasha 
was placed at the head of the government. This 
man only appeared to disappear, like those who 
had preceded him in his authority. 

Mohammed Ali, constantly working himself into 
favor, by one means or another, received from the 
Porte the appointment of Pasha of Djiddah, and 
finally, in May, 1805, another serious revolt occur- 
ring, a deputation of Sheikhs begged Mohammed 
Ali to assume the government. At first he made 
a feint of declining, but being again persuaded, he 
consented with apparent unwillingness to occupy 
the position which he had so cunningly prepared 
for himself. The deposed Kurschid made a resist- 



388 Mohammed AIL 

ance, but the friends of Mohammed obtained from 
Constantinople an order giving the governorship 
to him, and on the third of August, this remark- 
able man received command of the citadel of Cairo. 

Having won his way to the favor of the Porte, 
Mohammed Ali now gave his attention to the 
Mamelukes, by no means an unimportant foe. Their 
improvement in discipline has been mentioned; 
they were also in close alliance with the nomadic 
Arab tribes, and Mohammed Ali knew well that 
he stood little chance of success with them in open 
and fair combat; so strategy and murder were 
called to his aid, and the unvarnished truth is, 
that two of the most revolting treacheries and 
butcheries of all those that stain the pages of 
Oriental history, were the means hj which Moham- 
med Ali secured himself in the place which he was 
determined to hold. 

His first step was to send his emissaries to the 
Mamelukes and offer them an entrance into Cairo, 
on the occasion of the festivities upon the day of 
the opening of the sluices of the Nile, when, with 
his officers, he would be outside the city. The 
wily Mamelukes fell into the trap, and when they 
had ridden into the town, and reached the tortuous 
bazaars, the Albanians, who were concealed in the 



Mohammed made Pasha. 389 

houses, cut off their retreat, murdered many, and 
took others prisoners, only to kill them on the fol- 
lowing day c Thus ended the first massacre. 

The power of the Mamelukes now being essen- 
tially lessened, Mohammed Ali was beginning to 
feel comparatively safe, when the Porte, with its 
accustomed jealousy of the capable officials, sent to 
remove him to the chief office at Saloniki, while 
Moussa Pasha Avas sent to assume the post of 
governor of Egypt. 

But again Mohammed Ali was equal to the man- 
agement of the Porte. His Albanians swore to 
support him ; he sent memorials from the Ulema, 
or higher class of citizens, to Constantinople beg- 
ging, for their part, that he should be left in his 
position. Just at this time a war broke out 
between Russia and the Porte, and the firman was 
despatched which made him Pasha of Egypt ; this 
reached Cairo in November 1806. 

During the next year, 1807, a second expedition 
was sent from England to Egypt, which was met 
with such efficient opposition by Mohammed Ali, 
that no disastrous results were suffered by him or 
his people. Being now left to act upon his own 
policy, the new Pasha set about strengthening him- 
self in his position so as to insure a permanent hold 



390 Mohamriud AIL 

upon the government of Egypt for himself and his 
family. First, he saw that he must exact a large 
revenue from his subjects, in order to send such 
sums of tribute to Constantinople as would propi- 
tiate the Sultan, and make it clearly for his interest- 
to sustain the power of the Egyptian governor. 
Acting upon this principle he used many unjust 
means to obtain possession of large estates ; he 
denied the legitimacy of many successions ; he 
burned title deeds, and seized properties ; in short, 
he set at defiance all universally acknowledged 
rights of landholders. Great disturbances followed, 
but Mohammed Ali was prepared for these, and, 
by his wonderful firmness he made it appear that 
the bare assertion of claims was an aggression on 
the part of the Sheikhs. 

The taxes were constantly increased, and their 
collection put into the hands of the military gov- 
ernors ; by this means the peasantry were ground 
to the very lowest point, and there is no doubt 
that their numbers were greatly diminished by the 
extreme policy of Mohammed Ali. 

Early in the present century, the Wahabis, a sect 
of Mohammedan Reformers or Moslem Puritans, 
had taken possession of Arabia, and even forbade 
the J'early caravans to enter Mecca. At length 



Massacre of Mamelukes, 391 

the Sultan commanded Mohammed Ali to proceed 
against the fanatics, and to re-establish his rights 
at Mecca and Medina. Toussoun Pasha, the son 
of the great Ali, was selected to be the commander 
of this expedition. When the army was in readi- 
ness and encamped on the desert, near Cairo, the 
great Pasha made an occasion for the second mas- 
sacre, which utterly destro) r ed the remnant of the 
Mamelukes. 

All the civil and military authorities were in- 
vited to assist in the ceremony of investing Tous- 
soun Pasha with the pelisse of his office, and on 
the evening preceding the fatal day, the Mamelukes 
were also asked to take part in the pageant. As a 
sort of peace had been made between Mohammed 
Ali and the remaining Mamelukes, they accepted 
his invitation with little suspicion of treachery. 
Then, when the procession was arranged, these 
fated men were placed between the Albanians and 
other troops devoted to the Pasha ; when the 
citadel was reached a terrible fire was poured into 
them, and all were killed — none were permitted to 
escape, and orders had been sent into the different 
provinces commanding the pursuit and murder of 
every Mameluke. In all more than a thousand 
men were killed, and onlv one Mameluke remained 



392 Mohammed Ali. 

to mourn — he could not hope to avenge — the ex- 
tinction of his race. This man was Amyn Bey. 
By some accident he was late in joining his breth- 
ren at Cairo, and when hastening towards the 
citadel, he heard the firing, and took the alarm, 
and by almost miraculous courage escaped into 
Syria. After this slaughter, the houses of the 
Mamelukes were pillaged; their women were vio- 
lated, and all possible atrocities were committed. 
It is only just to add that the men were decapitated 
who indulged in these excesses which were perpe- 
trated against the command of Mohammed Ali. 

In 1811, the Wahaby war was thus inaugurated, 
and it was characterized, throughout its duration, 
by the most sanguinary deeds. These people be- 
lieved in nothing that was not taught in the law 
of the Prophet ; they onty insisted that the law 
should be followed letter by letter. They judged 
the Turks and other Moslems to be recreant to the 
pure faith of Mohammed, and were fighting for 
their soul's salvation, just as the Christian martyrs 
died for theirs. 

The name of Wahaby was derived from that of 
their leader, Abd-el-Wahab. The contest between 
the army of Toussoun Pasha and these people was 
arduous, and at length Mohammed Ali went him- 




IN THE SUBURBS OF CAIRO. 



Walxaby War. 395 

self to the scene of war, to Mecca, and when his 
prowess was joined to that of his son, the insurrec- 
tion was so far put down that the yearly pilgrim- 
ages could be resumed, and all hindrances to trade 
were removed. The troublesome Wahabis were 
driven into the Hedjaz, and the ke3 r s of Medina 
were sent to the Sultan, at Constantinople, to- 
gether with some dusky heads of the fanatics, with 
which he ornamented the entrance to his palace. 

Mohammed Ali, on his return from this war, 
reached Cairo in June, 1815, and immediately 
proceeded to the execution of a grand project 
which he had entertained for sometime, namely, 
the introduction into Egypt of European military 
organization and tactics. The announcement of 
this plan created great excitement, and a conspiracy 
was planned which endangered the life of Moham- 
med Ali. Hearing of this, and fearing that ill 
might befall his father, Toussoun Pasha returned 
to Egypt, where he soon after died from the con- 
sequences of his indulgences as a voluptuary. 

This was a bitter grief to his father, for Toussoun 
was his favorite son, and though his dissipations 
had been censured by the old Pasha, yet the heart 
of Toussoun was more affectionate than that of 
the iron-cold Ibrahim. When Mohammed was 



396 Mohammed Alt. 

told of the death, he threw himself on the ground 
in a paroxysm of grief, and kept silence during 
three days. 

Although Toussoun Pasha had left the Wahabis 
in a position favorable to the Egyptians, yet Mo- 
hammed Ali could be satisfied with nothing less 
than their utter conquest. Therefore, in Septem- 
ber, 1816, his son, Ibrahim Pasha, was dispatched 
with an army to resume the contest in Arabia. 
After two more years he succeeded in exterminat- 
ing the sect; the chief was sent to Cairo, where he 
was hospitably entertained as a mockery of his 
state ; then sent to Constantinople, where he was 
beheaded. The capital city of the Wahabis, 
Derayeh, was levelled with the ground ; the date 
trees were cut down, and the small remnant of 
these devotees fled in various directions. 

Mohammed Ali had by no means relinquished 
his determination to reorganize his army, but the 
time had not }'et come for a decisive action in the 
matter. Meanwhile, he gave his attention to the 
conquest of the country of the Upper Nile. 

Heretofore he had done little towards the in- 
crease of the resources of his government. Arabia 
had given him no spoils, and the gold-dust, feathers, 
gums, and other productions of the upper country, 



Expedition to Upper Egypt. 397 

presented great attractions to the merchants of 
Lower Egypt. The Pasha not only sent an army, 
but with them numbers of the Ulema, who, being 
learned men, could preach Islamism, and under- 
standing political science, could also instruct the 
savages in their duty to the successor of the 
Caliphs. 

A vast force left Cairo in June, 1820, for 
Assouan, which was to be the rendezvous for the 
three thousand boats with their burdens, and for 
the cavalry troops who made the journey by land. 
This expedition was commanded by Ismail Pasha, 
another son of Mohammed Ali. No great opposi- 
tion was made to the army as it advanced, and it 
may be said that the Upper Nile was subjugated 
at this time ; nevertheless, it was many years 
before discipline and peace were established there, 
and the murder of Ismail Pasha, just when his 
work was done, extinguished the satisfaction that 
his father might otherwise have felt in the success 
of his plan ; this was the second son of the great 
Pasha who had died just as he had accomplished a 
task given him by his father. Ismail Pasha was 
literally burned to death by a barbarian whom he 
had exasperated ; this savage drove Ismail Pasha 
and his men into the house which they occupied, 



398 



Mohaimned AIL 



surrounded it with savages, spread straw about and 
set it on fire ; those who escaped the flames were 




BEDOUIN WOMEN GRINDING CORN. 

butchered. Thus the sins of Mohammed Ali 
seemed to be visited upon his child. 

Although in 1815 the proposition to reorganize 
the Egyptian army had created an insurrection, 
before 1829 the skilful maneuvering of Mohammed 



Army Reorganized. 399 

Ali had accomplished the change. A French 
officer, named Seves, and^iow called Soliman Bey, 
had trained the soldiers ; a Spanish colonel, Se- 
guera, had organized the military school ; the 
palace of Murad Bey was now a cavalry school, 
under the instruction of Monsieur Varin ; and the 
citadel of Cairo an arsenal, where the native Egyp- 
tians, under the direction of European Avorkmen, 
cast cannon, and manufactured arms and accoutre- 
ments. 

The army being thus brought into a satisfactory 
condition, Mohammed Ali determined to build up 
an Egyptian navy, and to make Alexandria its 
chief station. That city had resumed much of its 
old commercial importance, and by means of all the 
schemes which the Pasha had carried on, he had 
realized such a revenue as made it possible to him 
to follow the usages of sovereigns ; to reward those 
who served him ; to dispense honors at his pleasure, 
and, more important than all, to command the 
skilled labor of other countries. He ordered frig- 
ates to be constructed in Marseilles, and other 
ports of Europe; he sent young men abroad to 
study in naval schools ; he employed foreign 
engineers, and by these and other equally intelli- 
gent means, Mohammed Ali laid firm and broad 



400 Mohammed AIL 

foundations for his present power and future glory. 

Nor did these important affairs demand all the 
thought of this ruler, for he also found time to 
introduce the culture of the cotton plant, and of 
opium ; to plant trees and to make gardens which 
are still admired by travellers in Egypt, as well as 
to restore the canal between Alexandria and the 
Nile, called by the name of the Sultan Mahmoud. 

So far everything seemed to prosper under the 
hand of Mohammed Ali, but when he undertook 
to establish various manufacturing interests, he 
made a sad failure. This might have been fore- 
seen by a European, but how could this wonderful 
Roumelian know that his people were not suited to 
such labors ? or how realize that a country with- 
out coal or iron, can never compete with Great 
Britain and other northern lands ? The wonder is, 
not that he failed in this, but that he succeeded in 
so much else. 

The educational system established by Moham- 
med Ali is the noblest monument which remains to 
his memory. The medical schools and hospitals 
which he founded under Dr. Clot or Clot Bey, were 
an inestimable benefit to Egypt, and the surgeons 
educated in them are much better suited to the 
people and army of their countr}' than any 



Schools Founded. 401 

foreigners, of whatever skill or education, could 
ever be. 

Many other schools were founded ; many text- 
books were translated, and, in short, a complete 
governmental and educational revolution took 
place under the guidance of this wise ruler. A 
good police system was inaugurated ; Franks were 
protected where they had previously been robbed ; 
the roads were made secure ; system everywhere 
replaced anarchy, and foreigners were invited to 
settle in Egypt, rather than robbed, insulted and 
murdered as they had been hitherto. Handsome 
residences were built by Europeans, and many cus- 
toms of advanced civilization introduced among 
the upper classes, which in time influenced those 
beneath them, and thus had a broader effect than 
at first appeared. 

This new rule of order, together with the de- 
velopment of steam navigation, induced the re- 
sumption of overland communication and com- 
merce with India; and soon the mails were as 
regular and reliable through Egypt to India and 
back, as from America to England. 

In private life Mohammed Ali was a gentleman 
of good taste, easy manners, and an adaptability 
to people and circumstances such as is rarely seen. 



402 Mohammed All. 

He had fine palaces at Alexandria and Cairo, and 
at the latter place he spent much time at his 
pleasure-garden of Shoubra, which was connected 
with the city by an avenue of trees. 

He said of himself: "I had not the benefits of 
early education. I was forty-seven years old when 
I learned to read and write. I have never seen 
countries more civilized than my own ; so I do not 
expect to do what you are able to do, and to reach 
the height at which you have arrived. The diffi- 
culty is to begin ; I had to begin by scratching the 
soil of Egypt with a pin ; I have now got to cul- 
tivate it with a spade ; but I mean to have all the 
benefit of a plough." 

As far as the relations of Mohammed Ali to 
Egypt are concerned, he was a benefactor worthy 
of much praise, and alas ! of heavy blame at the 
same moment. But no true estimate can be made 
of his character without considering his course 
towards the Porte, and its representative, Sultan 
Mahmoud, which was nothing less than inhuman, 
traitorous, and detestable. 

Having wrung from the Sultan the control of 
Egypt, having exterminated the Mamelukes, and 
welded his power in every manner possible, he 
conceived the idea of founding an empire, of which 



Ibrahim Pasha. 403 

Egypt should be the centre, and which should em- 
brace Arabia, Syria and Palestine, leaving to the 
Ottomans only those who spoke the Turkish 
tongue. 

Ibrahim Pasha, his son, was made general-in- 
chief of the army which was to further this under- 
taking. He led his soldiers triumphantly through 
Syria; he occupied Acre, Damascus, Horns, and, 
at last, the sacred Konieh in Asia Minor. Con- 

sternatjfin feigned even at Constantinople, and only 

* / 
the intervention of the European powers, excepting 

France, with the most decided action on their 

part, and the presence of an English fleet in the 

harbor of Alexandria, brought the great Pasha to 

consent to the stipulations which had been agreed 

upon by Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia, 

and the Porte. By this treaty, called the quadruple 

alliance, Mohammed Ali evacuated Syria, Arabia, 

and Candia ; surrendered the fleet, and submitted 

himself to the authority of the Porte. For all 

this, he received, on the fourth of February, 1841, 

the pardon of the Sultan for himself and his 

family, and the Pashalic of Egypt hereditarily. 

Mohammed Ali, realizing that his limits had 

been fixed for him, and in spite of him, turned his 

energies to the improvement of what was now an 



404 Mohammed Ali. 

assured heirloom to his descendants. He employed 
a large portion of his army in agricultural labors, 
but retained suitable garrisons at Cairo and Alex- 
andria ; the latter city was fortified ; many im- 
provements were made which beautified his chief 
cities ; a telegraph was laid to Suez ; the route to 
India was improved, and luxury increased in the 
large towns. 

Throughout the country districts there was 
great distress : the cattle murrain brought dread- 
ful consequences ; the peasants could not pay 
their taxes ; everything was as bad as it could be, 
and yet Mohammed Ali was blind to the pecuniary 
destruction into which his course was sure to lead 
his country. Ibrahim Pasha determined that his 
father should know the whole truth. When the 
old man heard all, he refused belief; he fancied 
that he was surrounded by traitors and would see 
no member of his family. After the first excite- 
ment was over, a reconciliation was brought about, 
and such' measures taken as were practicable for 
the pecuniary relief of Egypt. 

In 1845, Ibrahim Pasha, on account of failing 
health, went to Europe, where he received the most 
flattering attentions, in all the countries which he 
visited. In the summer of 1846 Mohammed Ali 



" Barrage du Nil" 405 

accepted the Sultan's invitation to go to Constan- 
tinople, and upon his homeward journey visited 
Cavala, his birthplace. Upon his arrival at Alex- 
andria he was received with every possible mark of 
respect, and congratulated upon his safe return. 

In April 1847, the long-talked of project known 
as the " Barrage du Nil" was inaugurated, the old 
Pasha himself laying the corner-stone. The pur- 
pose of this great work was to force back the 
water of the Nile at the season of the low water, 
in order to create an artificial irrigation, by filling 
arterial canals. 

During the year 1847 both Mohammed Ali and 
Ibrahim Pasha suffered much from failing health ; 
the latter went a second time to Italy, and his 
father passed a few weeks at Malta, but the knowl- 
edge of the troubles in Europe, so increased 
Mohammed Ali's maladies, that his mental facul- 
ties succumbed, and he was incapable of exercising 
any authority whatever. Thus Ibrahim Pasha 
was forced, in spite of his own feebleness, to assume 
the government of Egypt, which he did in June, 
1848. 

He went to Constantinople, where the Sultan 
Abdul-Medjid installed him as Pasha of Egypt, 
and decorated him with his own hand, and thus 



406 Mohammed Ali. 

the great Mohammed Ali was buried, while still 
alive, for he lived on, until the second of August, 
1849, when he ceased to breathe, and was buried 
in the beautiful mosque, which bears his name, 
within the ancient castle of Salaclin, on the finest 
and most remarkable spot in all Cairo, which had 
been to him the City of Victoiy, indeed ! 

Mohammed Ali found the Egypt of the Mame- 
lukes a country governed by the whims of a half- 
savage race, and as far as the modern Egypt is con- 
cerned, he may be called the founder of its govern- 
ment. He has been so often likened to Napoleon 
that the idea of the resemblance is weary with 
being constantly presented, and yet, it is too strik- 
ing to be passed over. Both of these men were 
strangers to the countries they ruled — statesmen 
by nature rather than by training for the part, — 
unprincipled in gaining their ends, and ambitious 
of forming an empire for their families ; and both 
lived while others occupied their thrones, and died 
in solitary sadness. 

Mohammed Ali excelled Napoleon, in that lie 
secured his place to his descendants, and thus his 
work endured longer than that of the European 
usurper. He failed to add to his territory as he 
wished, but he created an Egyptian empire, made 



Advances in Egypt. 407 

up of the many differing tribes and peoples, which 
existed as separate powers in the Egypt which he 
found. 

He should not be judged from his great sins 
alone — they cannot be forgotten or concealed, but 
they may be shaded by the good he did. His 
organization of his state and army, his system of 
education, his great improvements and the adorn- 
ments of his chief cities, his increase of comfort 
and civilized life in Egypt, these should and do 
live after him, and make his memory dear to his 
people ; and at this day it is a question whether 
the plan of Mohammed Ali, if carried out, would 
not be a world-wide blessing. 

That intelligent writer, DeLeon, says, "An Arab 
empire, with Egypt at its head, embracing Syria 
and Palestine on the one side, and Arabia on the 
other, under a protectorate of two or more of the 
Great Powers, would oppose a breakwater to 
Russian aggression on the one hand, and relieve 
that alien race from the exactions and misgovern- 
ment of the Porte, which has amply proved its un- 
fitness to govern, and which in fact does not gov- 
ern them : the limits of its authority being those 
of its garrisoned towns, outside of which protection 
from native sheikhs is essential for the traveller's 



408 



Mohammed Alt. 



safety, and of whose nominal rule the tax-gatherer 
is the only representative. Among the various 
propositions made as to the partition of the Turk- 
ish Empire, it strikes me as surprising that British 
statesmen have not, as in the case of the Suez 
Canal, reconsidered and reversed the policy of 
their predecessors, and made the dream of old 
Mohammed Ali, which thej^ so rudely dissipated, 
a reality in the hands of his successors." 

The reign of Ibrahim Pasha lasted but seventy 
days: long enough to show his cold heart, his 
avarice and sagacity, and long enough to confirm 
his unpopularity. 

Paton, in his " History of the Egyptian Revolu- 
tion," goes so far as to declare that he had not a 
single sincere friend. He died nine months before 
the death of his demented old father, at the age of 
fifty-nine, and was buried in the family tomb, under 
Mount Mokattam, eleven hours after he ceased to 
live. 

Ibrahim Pasha was succeeded by his nephew, 
Abbas Pasha, son of Toussoun Pasha, the con- 
queror of the Wahabis. He bore no resemblance 
to his grandfather; dark in complexion, short, 
stout, with a bloated and sensual face, and cruel 
eyes, he was more a Turk than an Egyptian, and 



Abbas Pasha, 409 

hated and feared the Europeans and their habits 
as much as Mohammed Ali had admired and copied 
them. He spoke no foreign language, and lived 
apart from the world as much as possible. He 
was too narrow-minded to increase materially the 
commerce of his country ; nevertheless he de- 
manded a large revenue, for he sent much money 
to the Sultan, hoping to buy his favor, and to 
obtain the succession for his son, El-Hami. 

The Crimean war broke out during the reign of 
Abbas Pasha, and he spared nothing that could 
prove his loyalty to the Porte ; money and men 
were sent forward with dispatch, and in liberal 
supplies. When the Sultan ordered him to expel 
from Egypt all Greeks not enrolled as Christian 
subjects of the Porte, Abbas Pasha showed some 
good feeling — at least, he so delayed his obedience 
that it was at length arranged that the Greeks 
should remain in Egypt under the protection of 
foreign consuls. 

The reign of Abbas Pasha endured but six 
years, and was, in some points, well conducted. 
He contracted no debts ; railroads were first built 
in Egypt at this time ; and he advanced the agri- 
cultural interests of his country. Though he hated 
foreigners, he well appreciated the advantages to 



410 Mohammed Alt. 

be derived from them, and threw no obstacles in 
the way of profiting by these. 

Under Abbas Pasha the fellaheen were much 
oppressed — no projects for their advantage met 
with his approval ; for him they were but slaves. 

Like his father, Abbas Pasha met a violent 
death. The motives for his murder have never 
transpired ; it was committed in 1854, at the 
Benha palace, about twenty miles from Cairo, by 
two young slaves, who had been sent him as a 
gift from Constantinople, by one of his female 
relatives. The Governor of Cairo, Elfy Bey, was 
hastily summoned ; he gave orders that the death 
of the Pasha should be concealed, and placing the 
dead body in the state carriage, and sitting op- 
posite to it in his accustomed place, he drove to 
the citadel of Cairo. ELfy Bey then ordered the 
guns of the fortress to be pointed on the town, 
and every preparation to be made for placing El- 
Hami in power, in accordance with the desire of 
Abbas Pasha, and to the exclusion of the heir, Said 
Pasha. 

However, through the influence of the foreign 
consuls, especially Sir Frederick Bruce, Elfy Bey 
was persuaded to relinquish his designs, which, to 







EGYPTIAN FELLAHEEN. 



Said Pasha. 413 

say the least, were treasonable, and Said Pasha was 
installed as Viceroy without delay. 

Said Pasha was the younger son of Mohammed 
Ali, and as attractive and frank as his predecessor 
had been the reverse of these. He had been care- 
fully educated by an accomplished tutor, Koenig 
Bey, and spoke French perfectly. He loved the 
society of Europeans and kept open house in a 
style that made everybody comfortable ; his table 
was always well furnished and served, and his 
wines were of the best. 

His mother was a Georgian, and Said was fair in 
complexion and had a large and powerful figure, 
while his eyes were wide open, and his expression 
was earnest and candid. His views of life were 
broad and liberal, and his morals not of the Eastern 
type, for he shared his love and his throne with 
one wife, the princess Ingee Khanum, a charming 
and accomplished lady, who survived her husband, 
and lived under Ismail Pasha in the state that 
became the widow of a Viceroy. 

Said Pasha, like Mohammed Ali, loved to be 
seen by the people, and gave many fetes and balls, 
which were largely attended by strangers, as all 
were made welcome, even without invitations. In 
his day the European costume had not been so 



414 Mohammed All. 

generally adopted in Egypt" as at the present time, 
and his palace-grounds, illuminated with variegated 
lamps, and filled with promenaders in the Oriental 
costumes, afforded a good reproduction of the fetes 
of the " Arabian Nights Entertainments." 

Said Pasha was also a soldier, and during his 
reign great attention was given to the discipline 
and equipment of the army, which numbered fifty 
thousand men. He replaced the Oriental dress 
which had been discarded bj r Abbas Pasha ; lie 
provided suits of armor for several squadrons of 
horse, among which was a troop of Nubians, who, 
mounted upon black steeds, and wearing the chain 
armor of olden times", made an effective appearance. 

Said Pasha was ambitious to do some great work 
which should immortalize his name. He sent for 
Stephenson and other engineers to construct rail- 
roads ; for Mougel Bey to proceed with the "Bar- 
rage du Nil " commenced by his father ; he made 
model villages for the fellaheen, whose condition he 
sought to improve ; he endeavored to raise the 
standard of agriculture by the introduction of 
steam-pumps and other machinery, "and kept 
Father Nile within his bed, out of which, as now, he 
annually at a given time roused him, to make a 
run over the country, instead of allowing him to 



Large Revenues. 



417 



tumble out himself in primitive fashion ; " and 
finally, he gave to De Lesseps the concession for 
the Suez Canal, which of course made the fame 
and fortune of that great engineer. In recognition 
of this, Port Said and the northern mouth of the 
canal bear his name. 

The American Civil War caused the revenues 




CROSSING THE RIVER IN NUBIA. 



of Egypt to be largely increased by the rise in the 
price of cotton ; they reached the enormous sum 
of six millions of pounds, and yet, when Said Pasha 
died, after a reign of nine years, Egypt was in debt, 
and his own fortune was gone. When ill health 



418 



Mohammed Ali. 



and misfortune came his friends forsook him, and 
death was a release from pain of soul and physical 
agony. He was buried beside his mother in the 
burial-ground of a small mosque at Alexandria. 

Said Pasha left an only son, Toussoun Pasha, 
who married a daughter of Ismail Pasha, the late 
Khedive ; he was made the minister of education, 
but did not survive his father many years, 
and left his mother a widow and childless, sur- 
rounded with the burdensome ceremonies of East- 
ern etiquette, in the midst of all the bitter humilia- 
tions and misfortunes which came so rapidly upon 
Egypt under the rule of the successor of her 
husband. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



EGYPT UNDER ISMAIL KHEDIVE. 




T 



*HE legitimate suc- 
cessor of Said 
Pasha was Achmet, 
eldest son of Ibrahim 
Pasha, but he having 
been killed by an acci- 
dent, his brother, Ismail 
Pasha, came to the 
throne, and later re- 
ceived the title of Khe- 
dive, by which he is now known. After the death 
of Achmet Pasha, and during the life of Said Pasha, 
Ismail Pasha kept himself much aloof from the 
court, and gave his time largely to the acquisition 
of real estate, which was his chief passion, and to 
the culture of his lands, 

419 



"^^fcC-, 



CAIRENE WATER-SELLER. 



420 Egypt under Ismail Khedive. 

This man became Viceroy with the new year of 
1863, and he soon astonished the world by the 
revelation of the grasping ambition and boundless 
energy which he had so perfectly held in check so 
long as Said Pasha lived. 

Early in life Ismail Pasha had been sent to 
France to be educated ; he had visited Constanti- 
nople, and in 1855 had gone the second time to 
France, and from there to Italy, where he waited 
upon the Pope and made him magnificent presents. 
Later, when Sa'id Pasha was absent from Egypt, 
on the continent, Ismail had borne an important 
part in the government. In 1861 he had led an 
army into Soudan to check an insurrection, in 
which undertaking he was successful. Thus, his 
experience had afforded him a certain knowledge 
of the affairs of the government he was to wield, 
and a good preparation for his duties. Two days 
after his accession the new Pasha received the 
members of the consular service in Egypt, and 
declared his intention of following the policy of 
Said Pasha. 

M. Benoit Brunswick drew this striking picture 
of the Egypt ruled by Ismail Pasha: "In Egypt 
there are twentj^ thousand Frenchmen, ten thousand 
Englishmen, twenty thousand Italians, twenty-five 




siillils 



mf *»*$.? >■■■"*■*' '' ;,: ' 



Prince Halim. 423 

thousand Greeks, two thousand Turks. There are 
no Egyptians, or rather the two millions of Egyp- 
tians count for no more than the agricultural popu- 
lation in the rest of the empire. In Egypt, the 
foreigner addicts himself to commerce and manu- 
factures ; the Egyptian labors and pa)^s the taxes ; 
the Turk governs. There is no national tradition 
in Egypt, because there is no Egyptian nation ; 
there is but one tradition — one which reaches far 
away into antiquity : it is that of unrequited labor." 

In the arrangement of his government Ismail 
Pasha made Prince Halim, the younger and last 
surviving son of Mohammed Ali, his President of 
the Council of Ministers. This prince was born in 
1829, and at thirteen j^ears of age was sent to 
Paris for his education. He remained seven years 
on the continent, and returned home at the death 
of his father to live upon the estate, thirty thou- 
sand fed dans of land, which Mohammed Ali gave 
to each of his sons. While Abbas Pasha reigned, 
Prince Halim was scarcely heard of, but Said 
Pasha made him first Governor-general of the 
Soudan, and later, Minister of War. 

He soon earned the reputation of a proud and 
haughty man among his equals — and of a merciful 
and gentle master of the fellaheen. Lord Derby 



424 Egypt under Ismail Khedive. 

said of him (when he sent a large subscription to 
England for the English operatives in 1862) : 
" Unlike the Eastern princes of old, Halim Pasha 
is an active and enlightened agriculturist. He has 
spent vast sums on the improvement of his prop- 
erty and the introduction of machinery. His en- 
ergy and administrative abilities are only equalled 
by his kindness and consideration." 

The nephew and uncle did not long agree, for 
when, in 1864, Ismail proposed to appropriate 
certain lands unlawfully, Prince Halim took such 
a stand as rendered it necessary for him to leave 
the cabinet of the Viceroy ; he retired to his palace 
at Shoubra, and gave himself up to his private 
cares, but so distasteful was he to Ismail, that at 
last, in 1868, after a series of steps pointing to- 
wards this climax, Prince Halim was banished 
from Egypt, and went to Constantinople, where he 
was received with much honor. 

The first principal care of Ismail Pasha, after 
the formation of his cabinet, and the usual routine 
of business attendant upon the accession of a Vice- 
roy, was to make himself the Merchant Prince 
of Egypt. He was already an immense landholder; 
he soon became the great producer and exporter of 
the country. He had extensive cotton* and sugar 



The Merchant Prince. 425 

plantations, and assumed the monopoly of all which 
he undertook. It was not an unusal circumstance 
for all the means of transportation to be employed 
by him, while other merchants were forced to wait 
until the produce of the Viceroy had been moved 
before they could ship a pound of their merchan- 
dise. 

Another advantage of which he availed himself 
was labor by corvee, or unpaid labor. It was a 
custom to command the corvee for public works, 
but Ismail Pasha enforced it for his private gain. 
By these unprincely acts this Viceroy was a more 
literal realization of the Merchant Prince than is 
often seen — he seemed not to appreciate the un- 
fitting position in which he placed himself, and was 
at no pains to veil the commercial phase of his 
life. 

He early gained an undesirable reputation by 
calling off the corvee from the work upon the Suez 
Canal, and employing it in his private service. 
This created so much difficulty that Nubar Pasha 
was sent to France on account of it, and after 
much negotiation, the offices of the emperor being 
called in, mutual concessions were made by the 
Viceroy and the officers of the Canal Company, and 
peace was restored between them, in July, 1864, 



426 Ismail Khedive. 

from which time the work upon this great under- 
taking went forward without interruption. 

There is no doubt that from the moment of his 
accession to power the most cherished wish in the 
heart of Ismail Pasha, was that of obtaining from 
the Sultan a firman, which should change the suc- 
cession of the Pashalic of Egypt, and give it to his 
own immediate family, in place of its descent by 
the Mohammedan law of inheritance — the same by 
which he had himself become Viceroy. 

All his lavish gifts to the Sultan, all his humility 
before Abdul Aziz were but stepping stones to 
this end, and finally, in May, 1866, it was unfait 
accomjili, the coveted decree was his, but at what 
cost? It is said that the Sultan received six 
hundred and fifty thousand Turkish livres, besides 
costly gifts to his wives, his mother and his minis- 
ters. 

The following j^ear, by another firman, Ismail 
Pasha received from the Sultan far greater absolute 
power than any other Viceroy of Egypt had ever 
held ; he could regulate the customs, the post, the 
laws concerning foreigners, and various other like 
matters, without reference to the Porte ; the only 
condition put upon him being that he should not 



Additional Power. 427 

violate the treaties already in force with other 
powers. 

At the same time his title was changed from 
that of Viceroy or Pasha to Khedive, which, to 
Moslems, implies a higher authority in a religious 
sense, while it is no more kingly than that of 
Viceroy. 

Following the gift of these new privileges, 
Ismail Khedive attempted to establish a constitu- 
tion and a mode of government in Egypt, which 
should have an appearance of being more in keep- 
ing with those of other countries than that which 
had existed heretofore. He called together an 
Egyptian Parliament, which he opened in person, 
and he attempted to inaugurate a municipal govern- 
ment in Alexandria. 

Under his influence, largely seconded by Nubar 
Pasha, the famous Minister of Commerce, many 
European manners and customs were brought out 
in Egypt, such as Parisian costumes, theatres, 
operas, and modes of arranging and refurnishing 
old houses, while an entirely different plan was 
followed in the erection of new ones. 

Jerrold says in his " Egypt under Ismail Pasha" : 
"His first care was to secure the vice-regal throne 
to his own family by order of primogeniture, to rid 



428 Ismail Khedive. 

himself of the princes of his house who might 
thwart this dishonest design, and to buy up their 
estates, so that they should have no root in the 
country. 

" His second care was to develop the material 
resources of the country, which he had secured to 
his family, so that the main stream of the wealth 
should flow into his own lap. In pursuit of this 
design he has performed many notable works, con- 
nected his name with many remarkable undertak- 
ings, enormously increased the exports from his 
kingdom, embellished Cairo and Alexandria, 
improved the system of agriculture, and extended 
the influence and area of Egj^pt until it has 
become, as he has boastfully remarked, almost a 
European power. 

" All these labors, the direction of which he had 
monopolized, choosing passive instruments (as 
his own sons) for ministers, have left their marks 
upon him. He is not yet fifty, (1879), but his face 
is already marked with the deep lines of anxious 
thought ; he has an aspect of weariness and fatigue. 
His score of palaces, his leagues of fertile land — 
tilled gratis — his gardens laden with the perfumes 
of every clime, his sumptuous harem, and his irre- 
sponsible power over millions of men, all settled on 



Character of the Khedive. 429 

his children by the force of his own genius, have 
been bought at a heavy price. 

" A prince of extraordinary astuteness and dip- 
lomatic finesse ; capable of double the work an 
ordinary mortal can endure; with distinguished 
administrative faculties; keenly alive to all the 
material interests of his realm ; a persevering and 
intelligent student of Western ideas, modes of 
government, and methods of production and manu- 
facture; eager to seize upon any new invention, 
process of manufacture, and principle of agricul- 
ture ; an unflagging man of business, with an eye 
for the smallest details ; this remarkable descend- 
ant of Mehemet Ali (who gave few signs of the 
mental energy he possesses until he was called to 
rule) bears upon every passage of his life, as a 
ruler, the impress of his illustrious parentage. If 
his undoubted powers had been swayed and 
directed by lofty motives ; if he had been solicitous 
solely for the welfare of the patient and long- 
suffering tillers of the soil, committed by the 
powers of Europe to the care of his family ; if he 
had taken care that, in developing the unmeasured 
natural resources of the lands which the beautiful 
Nile fertilizes, at least a part of the new fruits 
should pass into the ha^dis of the fellaheen ; if he 



430 



Ismail Khedive. 



had really abolished the corvee, instead of perpet- 
uating compulsory service, in order to fill his own 
coffers ; if he had been, in truth, the earnest friend 
of the slave, he would have deserved more than the 
fame and praise which his creatures claim for 
him." 

Much as one must now, in the light of all that 
has occurred, censure the Khedive, there are also 
many good works to be ascribed to him. His 
interest in public education stands first and fore- 
most. In this way he has done more for Egypt 
than can be estimated, and has even inaugurated 
the public education of women ; a decade before 
his time this would have been counted an impossi- 
ble task by all the world, more especially by the 
Egyptians themselves. But this was easily done 
through the aid of a wife of the Khedive, who gave 
her royal patronage and countenance to the plan, 
and though at first there was a suspicious hesita- 
tion in profiting by so startling an innovation, a 
few months sufficed to fill the palace which had 
been arranged for the accommodation of three hun- 
dred girls. From this beginning the Egyptian 
mind has become accustomed to the idea of female 
education, and it will go on to do a great work in 



Common Education. 431 

the future, as superstitions shall, one after another, 
be more fully overcome. 

The Khedive summoned from Switzerland an 
able helper, Dor Bey, whom he made chief inspect- 
or of the public schools, and he, in his turn, has 
been ably seconded by Mr. Rogers. The public 
schools are divided into two classes, the primary, 
and government schools. The first are equivalent 
to the American common schools in the work they 
do — not yet, of course, equal to them in scope. 
The second class are of a special character, such as 
schools of medicine, mechanical and polytechnic 
schools. 

The primary schools embrace paying and non- 
paying pupils, and the latter are subject to the call 
of the state, thus furnishing material from which 
are drawn teachers, doctors, engineers, and so forth 
for government service. There are, in addition to 
these, a few preparatory schools which stand be- 
tween the primary and the government schools. 

It may be said to the praise of the Khedive that 
he has shown himself far superior to any supersti- 
tion or prejudice of race. In order to introduce 
into Egypt the leading features of Western civil- 
ization, he has employed men of all nations, who, 
he had the judgment to see, could advance his ideas 



432 



Ismail Khedive. 



much better than could be done by any other 
means ; his army has been remodeled and controlled 
by Americans ; his religious toleration has given 
peace and encouragement to the missionaries, who 
have certainly accomplished much in the larger 
towns; and until his financial embarrassments 
brought him into disgrace, he was much praised as 
a great reformer, and a light in the East, which 
would lead his people forth from the dense dark- 
ness of past centuries. 

The true estimate of the influence of the Khedive 
cannot be made for years to come ; certainly not 
now when he receives, and seems to merit only 
blame. DeLeon says : "But the financial embar- 
rassments of Egypt have come up like a cloud to 
eclipse these glories, and he is now denounced in 
more unmeasured terms than he was lauded before, 
and even his good deeds and good works doubted 
and denied. My task is neither 'to bury Caesar' 
nor 'to praise him.' I propose simply to depict 
the man and the monarch as I have seen and known 
him, and to do justice at the same time to the ruler, 
and to his people, not sparing the recital of his sins 
of omission and commission, while giving a cata- 
logue of the benefits he has conferred on his 
country and his people, heavy as may be the price 



Policy of the Khedive. 433 

which both he and they may have to pay for them. 
This eastern prince is by no means 'that faultless 
monster the world ne'er saw,' but a mere man, 
like the rest of us, and as such made up out of a 
mingled yarn of vices and virtues. That he pos- 
sesses that sin by which fell the angels — ambition, 
to which a moralist might add vain glory and 
rapacity, cannot be denied; that, in his zeal for 
rapidly reforming his cities and his people on the 
European model, he has gone too far and too fast for 
his own comfort and that of his subjects ; that in 
annexing, and seeking to annex, Equatorial Africa 
to Egypt he has embarked on a dubious enterprise ; 
that, in looking solely to the ends in view, he has 
often forgotten the means ; and in the treatment 
of the fellahs left much to be desired ; and, finally, 
that his expenditure has been greater than his 
means — all these charges cannot be disputed." 

But in spite of all speculation, turn the picture 
as one will, some things must be told by the his- 
torian of Egypt that place the Khedive in a most 
unworthy aspect. 

Mohammed Ali was the first Pasha who seized, 
to any great extent, the land of the fellahs, and 
gave it to his favorites or enriched his private 
property by its possession. Abbas Pasha, with all 



434 Ismail Khedive. 

his other sins, had not that of unduly robbing the 
peasantry. Said Pasha, however, laid no claim to 
virtues of this sort, his policy was the reverse of 
that of his predecessor, and he increased largely 
what he chose to call the public lands, excusing 
himself for his robberies by the plea that the peas- 
ants could not improve them, while he took good 
care to render it impossible to them by the addi- 
tional taxes which he imposed. 

Ismail Khedive had still another mode of oppres- 
sion. He not only exacted treble the amount of 
revenues paid to Said, but he secured to himself 
and his family, as private estates, a fifth of the best 
cultivable land in the whole country. When he 
came to the throne he was already a large land- 
holder, having, as he himself has said, a mania for 
real estate. He then bought out all the properties 
of his relatives, Mustafa and Halim, in order to 
pay for which he made Egyptian loans; and in 
various lawful and unlawful waj's, he so increased 
his own estates and those of his favorites that of 
the five million feddans of cultivable lands but 
three million five hundred thousand remain for 
the fellaheen, from whom the revenues must so 
largely come. 

The taxes were so enormous that the peasants 



Oppressive Taxes. 435 

only hoped to escape starvation, they could count 
on nothing more, and as the taxes were collected 
in kind, not in money, and the tax-collector had 
almost absolute power in valuation, the greatest 
oppression resulted in this direction, for the tax- 
collectors did not forget to take the full amount, 
usually a little more than was just. Then the 
octroi was added to the other taxes, and this so 
disheartened the fellaheen that they almost gave 
up all attempts to sell their produce. Then the 
date-bearing trees were taxed, and the trees too 
young to bear were taxed ; all trades were taxed, 
even the donkey boys ! 

But more than all these taxes was the corvee, or 
unpaid labor for public works, which, shame to say, 
has been largely employed for the cultivation of 
private estates of the Khedive, especially for his 
enormous cotton and sugar-raising plantations. 
The wretched fellaheen are taken away from their 
own lands in gangs, and retained for months at a 
time, receiving neither pay nor food for themselves 
or their beasts; their wives must bring them 
bread, and God only knows where they obtained 
that, or the food for their half-starved camels and 
oxen. Besides these taxes upon crops and lands, 
there were the tax on tobacco, a commission on 



436 Ismail Khedive. 

sales of cattle, a tax on mutton, and slaughter- 
house dues, dues to the public weigher, taxes on 
ferries, tolls over bridges, fees for marriages and 
burials, payments to be free from military service, 
and all sorts of fines, in order to escape punish- 
ment for crime — the last sort of revenue being car- 
ried beyond anything ever known in any Euro- 
pean country. 

To read all this calls up the indignation of any 
freeman, and jet how patiently were these burdens 
borne by the fellaheen of Egypt. The slave trade, 
against which Gordon Pasha labors, is a horror in 
Egj^pt, and has aroused the indignation and called 
out the protests of all countries ; but in certain 
views the corvSe is worse, for when the exhausted 
fellah and his family were starving no man owned 
them, and would not therefore feed them. 

Happily the fatal policy of the Khedive put an 
end to many of its own evils, for when he was 
forced to resign his affairs to his creditors, no 
excuse existed for the continuance of such fearful 
oppressions, and a better future may be hoped for 
in the case of the Egyptian fellah. 

It would be difficult to over-estimate the extrav- 
agance of the Khedive. One can fancy what 
sums it must cost to build a theatre, commission 



Suez Canal. 



437 



Verdi to write an opera, import the most famous 
actors, dancers, singers and artists of every sort, as 
well as journalists to write up praises of Egypt and 
its ruler. Yet these were but a small part of the 
expenses to which he devoted the piastres wrung 
from the fellaheen. 

To look back from this time to that of the open- 
ing of the Suez Canal, 
and recall the state and 
magnificence of the Khe- 
dive of Egypt at that 
time and to see him 
now, dethroned, exiled, 
affords one of those strik- 
ing examples of the falls 
from greatness which 
attend all ages. 

Upon the completion 
of that great enterprise, 
Egypt and her ruler 
appeared to be upon the 
heights of prosperity. 
The Khedive had gone 
in person to invite the 
map of the canal. sovereigns of the world 

to attend his fetes, and accept his hospitalities, and 







438 Ismail Khedive. 

the Sultan allowed his ambitious subject to occupy 
what seemed to be the rightful place of the Suze- 
rain upon this august occasion. 

The making of this canal — - a project which had 
disturbed the dreams of men for at least thirty cen- 
turies — was now realized, and the Mediterranean 
and Red Seas were united. 

The canal is one hundred miles long and passes 
through lakes Menzaleh, Ballah, Timsah and the 
Bitter Lakes. Suez and Port Said are the terminal 
towns, and Ismaila is the central station. This new 
city has many sanitary advantages. Its gardens are 
luxuriant and its boulevards, squares and prome- 
nades laid out in a manner that satisfied even the 
French engineers. 

The Khedive had a palace here, and M. de Les- 
seps and others, have lovely homes. The shops 
are kept by French people, and their language is 
heard everywhere. Ismaila is directly connected 
with Cairo by the Fresh-water Canal, and though 
in the midst of the Orient, is a French city — a com- 
plete outgrowth from the Canal and the French 
element which made that great work a success. 

Port Said, too, is one of the consequences of the 
Canal, and is decidedly like a French town also, 
but scarcely an attractive one— being not too clean, 






iillln 




, fills! 



«3ilO 



«Il|||R 



,W#< 



Suez Canal. 441 

and in some portions badly drained. It has, how- 
ever, many fine residences and some good business 
blocks ; its public garden is in the centre of the 
town, and the shops are good and in large numbers. 

Suez is of course improved by the opening of 
the Canal, but the change here is not so great as in 
the localities just mentioned. There are many 
foreigners here — mostly men. One writer calls it 
u a kind of Eastern bachelor's hall," and it cer- 
tainly has no attractions as a place of residence. 

The cost of the Suez canal amounted to £19,- 
000,000, and it has been leased to the Suez 
Canal Company for ninety-nine years, at the ex- 
piration of which time the Government of Egypt 
has the right to redeem it by paying a certain sum. 
For all commercial vessels it is a neutral way, but 
for vessels of war a question may be raised. To 
the friendly powers the privilege for war vessels 
has been granted, but the vessels of Russia were 
not allowed to pass. 

Since the doubts which for so many } r ears existed 
as to the practicability of making the Canal have 
been answered, a new question — a financial one — 
has arisen, and that, will the Canal pay ? can only be 
solved by time, as was the other. 

There is little to reward the traveller for a 






442 Ismail Khedive. 



journey through the Canal, and it is tiresome and 
monotonous in the extreme. The great sea-walls 
at Port Said are a wonder of engineering, and bear 
testimony to the skill and science which have pre- 
sided over all this work. It was the writer's good 
fortune to witness the works here, when thej r were 
in progress, in 1868, and that was a much more 
interesting and instructive sight than the finished 
Canal affords. The water was so shallow at Port 
Said that the vessels which would pass the Canal 
could not float within a mile and a half of the 
shore. To overcome this difficulty two enormous 
breakwaters were constructed ; one is two thousand 
and seventy and the other two thousand seven 
hundred and thirty yards long ; they are made of 
artificial stones, manufactured at Port Said from 
the sand found there, and lime brought from Eu- 
rope. Each block weighed twenty tons, and twen- ^tNJ 
ty-five thousand were used. After they had been f^-rJ\ 
pressed and dried they were taken out and tum- 
bled into the water, one after the other, until the 
two walls were made, after which the passage 
between them was dredged to a depth sufficient for 
floating large vessels. The constant deposit of 
sand along the Canal and at the mouth, has necessi- 
tated continual dredging, which is so large an ex- 



Prominent Men. 443 

pense as to require the passage of many vessels to 
pay even this charge, and this one difficulty has 
made it doubtful if the Suez Canal could ever be 
a success financially. 

It is necessary, in giving any account of Ismail 
Khedive, to speak of four important men who have 
been his advisers and servants. 

Nubar Pasha is an Armenian Christian, and 
was born at Smyrna, in 1825. When quite young 
he was sent to the continent to be educated, and 
went to Egypt in 1842, where he was the secretary 
of Boghos Bey, a relative of his, and a famous 
councillor to Mohammed Ali. 

Nubar Pasha was next made interpreter to the 
Viceroy, and later to Ibrahim Pasha, whom he 
accompanied in his journey to Europe. He also 
held the same office under Abbas Pasha who made 
him a Bey. In 1850 Nubar Pasha was sent to 
London upon a diplomatic mission, and since that 
time has been honored with several similar affairs. 
At the time of the death of Abbas Pasha he was 
Egyptian Minister at Vienna. 

At first Said Pasha believed that he required no 
service from Nubar Pasha, but he i^oon called on 
him for the delicate work of organizing the affairs 
of the transit to India. This office brought him 



444 Ismail Khedive. 

into connection with the French and English 
transit companies, and through his untiring zeal 
the railroad from Cairo to Suez was completed. 

Again Said Pasha endeavored to get on in- 
dependently of Nubar, but he soon recalled him 
and sent him on a mission to Vienna, after which 
time he was retained near the Viceroy as long as 
he lived. 

Ismail Pasha, after his accession, found im- 
mediate occupation for Nubar Pasha ; he sent him 
to Constantinople to conduct the arrangements 
for the completion of the Suez Canal, and other 
important matters. Upon this occasion he so com- 
mended himself to the Sultan that when that 
sovereign visited Egypt he made Nubar a Pasha 
— a very unusual honor to be conferred upon a 
Christian. 

Ismail Pasha next required his offices in France, 
to reconcile the difficulties which arose on account 
of the Viceroy's taking the fellahs from the work 
on the Canal and employing them for his private 
purposes. This troublesome mission being satis- 
factorily arranged, Nubar Pasha was made Minis- 
ter of Public Works, in which position he mani- 
fested unusual energy, and was just beginning to 
make himself felt when the Viceroy called him to 



Nubar Pasha. 447 

go again as Envoy Extraordinary to Constanti- 
nople. It was Nubar Pasha who now obtained 
from the Sultan the firman which made the succes- 
sion direct, enlarged and consolidated the power of 
the Viceroy, and placed Ismail Pasha where, if 
only he had been wise, he might have now the 
most enviable fame of his age. 

Nubar Pasha, with the consent of the Porte, 
went again to Europe and visited several courts 
for the purpose of reforming the consular service 
between Egypt and European powers. He also 
represented Egypt in the Monetary Congress at 
Paris in 1867. 

This accomplished man speaks the French, 
English, Italian, Armenian, Greek, Turkish, and 
Egjrptian languages, and it has been said of him, 
that when he learns the language of a people, he 
also seems to imbibe the spirit and to understand 
the character of that people. It is certainly true 
that he has been of great use to Egypt, and to 
Europe as well. In recognition of his services he 
has been decorated with many orders, and other- 
wise rewarded. 

In spite of all the important services of Nubar 
Pasha, he fell under the displeasure of the Khe- 
dive, and spent his time in foreign travel until 



448 Ismail Khedive. 

recently, when, after the pecuniary downfall of the 
Khedive, he made one of the new Ministry. 

In person, Nubar Pasha is striking and attractive. 
His complexion is dark, his features regular, and 
his smile prepossessing; he is of medium height 
and has such an address, and so fine a talent for 
conversation, that he only requires a few moments 
in which to commend himself, whenever he desires 
to do so. 

With all this he is singularly independent ; not 
in the remotest degree fawning in his intercourse, 
even with the loftiest and most exacting sover- 
eigns. This pride, which renders him frank always, 
rude at times, has made it all the more remarkable 
that he has been able to hold his position, at home 
and abroad, under the chances and changes of the 
governments of three Viceroj's. 

Perhaps his greatest work was that which made 
him obnoxious to the Khedive, the establishment 
of the mixed tribunals, which checked the absolut- 
ism of his master and the power of the consuls. 
This was his favorite scheme for more than twenty 
years, and any benefits which may arise from the 
new system are certainly the result of the foresight 
and perseverance of Nubar Pasha. 

The old rule in Egypt was, in the main, simply 



Mixed Tribunals. 449 

this : the Khedive and the Egyptian courts had no 
control over the affairs of foreigners, which were 
settled by the consuls entirely ; the Khedive, on 
the other hand, had absolute power over the 
natives, in both civil and criminal cases, where the 
interest of no European was involved. The mixed 
tribunals were intended to give the Egyptians some 
voice in the doings of foreigners in their midst, and 
to take from the Khedive his absolute power in all 
cases. The full intent was not accomplished by 
Nubar Pasha : this could not have been expected, 
but as much as was done was his work. 

Cherif Pasha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has 
somewhat divided the honors with Nubar Pasha, 
for, when one was in disgrace the other was in 
favor. Cherif Pasha was born at Constantinople, 
about 1819, and was of an old and noble Moslem 
family. He was educated in Europe, and was a 
distinguished scholar in the military school of 
St. Cyr. 

Upon his return to Egypt, in 1844, he made one 
of the suite of Halim Pasha ; when Said Pasha 
became Viceroy, he placed Cherif ( who had been 
his schoolmate in France) in the army, and gave 
him rapid promotion, until, at last, he was made a 
Pasha. In 1857 he was changed from military to 



450 Ismail Khedive. 

civil service, and was made Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, for the first time. 

Upon the accession of Ismail Khedive, Cherif 
Pasha received one portfolio after another, and 
was made regent of the country upon three separ- 
ate occasions when the Viceroy left Egypt. Cherif 
Pasha has received many honors in foreign nations, 
has numerous decorations, and is a member of the 
Institute of Egypt. He married the daughter of 
Colonel Seves, or Soliman Pasha, and thus has 
many French interests and attachments. 

In person, Cherif Pasha might be readily mis- 
taken for a Frenchman ; he is fair and florid, with 
gray eyes. He is so frank and soldier-like in his 
manner that he inspires perfect confidence ; he is 
extremely popular, and has a passion for the chase. 

Riaz Pasha, the Minister of Justice, is a younger 
man, a pupil of Nubar Pasha, and is a man of the 
future rather than of the past. 

But the most marvellous man in the service of 
the Khedive was Ismail Sadyk Pasha, the Minister 
of Finance, br the Mouffetich of the late regime. 
No story of fiction could be more marvellous than 
are the facts of this man's history — when writing 
the sober truth about him one feels as if it were a 
Munchausen. 



Ismail Sadyk Pasha. 451 

He was a fellah — an ignorant creature — speaking 
to his latest day no language but that of his own 
class, and yet he may be said to have ruled Egypt, 
from the Khedive himself, down to the lowest of 
his own caste, for the space of ten years. In per- 
son Sadyk Pasha was slight and stooping, sharp 
featured, dark skinned, with a cunning eye ; with 
his superiors and equals he assumed a fawning 
manner, at other times he was a brute. To a 
stranger he was simply disgusting and repellant, 
but he must have possessed some remarkable qual- 
ity which enabled him to gain and to hold his 
strange influence over Ismail Khedive ; let us hope 
that it was not solely because he was an unmiti- 
gated rascal and would serve for purposes which 
other Moslems would scorn. 

He was first employed by the Khedive as an 
overseer of a small estate, in which capacity he so 
gained the confidence of his sovereign that he was 
gradually promoted to the prominent position of 
Minister of Finance. His cruelty to those beneath 
him was so extreme that one could not frame in 
decent language the story of his crimes. He per- 
mitted the free use of the koorbash to his agents, 
" until a cry went up to earth and heaven against 
his oppressions, perpetrated in the name, if not by 



452 Ismail Khedive. 

the authority, of his master, who has ever borne 
the character of a humane man, constitutionally 
averse to cruelty." 

It is but fair to say that these things were 
largely unknown to the Khedive ; in Egypt it is 
possible to conceal much from one high in power. 
It would be charitable to believe that Ismail 
Sadyk Pasha was a madman — made such by his 
great power — by his excesses and by the benefits 
conferred upon him by the same hand that finally 
cut him down. 

As Minister of Finance he made loan after loan, 
paid any exorbitant rate of interest that might be 
asked, and plunged his master and his country into 
a pit so deep that no exit can be hoped for in years 
and years to come. When at last the Khedive 
became convinced of the real character of this 
wretch, he did not hesitate to turn upon him, and 
his benefactor was threatened by him with dis- 
grace and humiliation which should come from the 
lips and hand of his fellah-minister. In this he 
went too far ; the Khedive invited him to drive, 
and from that time he was lost to the sight and 
knowledge of man. 

It was said that he was sent a prisoner to Don- 
gola ; it was said that he died there, and a circular 



Ismail Sadyk Pasha, 453 

signed by the officials of that place, certifying his 
death, was sent to the consuls in Egypt, but no 
one feels that he knows the manner of the death of 
Ismail Sadyk Pasha, or the place of his burial, if, 
indeed, any was accorded him. 

In the new quarter of Cairo, called Ismailieh, 
this wretch had three vast palaces, profusely deco- 
rated and furnished with the rarest and choicest 
articles de luxe that money can buy. His plate 
cost the fortune of a prince, and the jewels belong- 
ing to his thirty-six wives embraced every possible 
ornament, from a ceinture of diamonds, valued at 
£ 7,000, to a six-penny buckle ! 

Here this low fellah lived, in the midst of sur- 
roundings which would have made the heaven of 
a Sybarite ; even the ewers and basins used for his 
hands were of solid silver, of artistic form, the for- 
tiSres and hangings of his rooms were in exquisite 
taste, and it is impossible to imagine this low crea- 
ture squatted down amongst his companions in 
such apartments. 

These palaces were confiscated, and their entire 
contents sold at public auction. DeLeon attended 
the sale, and says, "'Wolse} 7 -, with his Hampton 
Court, that bluff king Hal considered too great 
for a subject ! ' dwindles into insignificance when 



454 Ismail Khedive. 

compared with this more regal robber, who sprang 
from a mud-hut on the Nile, in less than ten years, 
into the possession of more palaces, jewels, women, 
and slaves, than Solomon in all his glory could 
boast of. 

"Such mushroom growths are possible only in 
the soil where Jonah's gourd attained its wonder- 
ful growth in the shortest possible space of time ; 
but his rise and fall, and the relics of his luxury, 
must recall more the romances of the ; Thousand 
and One Nights,' than the sober experiences of 
modern Egypt in the nineteenth century." 

To return to the history of Ismail Khedive, his 
financial embarrassments reached such a point in 
November, 1875, that his cunning minister declared 
himself unable to supply the needs of His Highness 
longer. The Khedive then turned to England, 
and begged to be saved from total ruin. (Only 
an outline statement can be given here, of what 
followed, and gradually led on to the exile of the 
Khedive.) 

Then began a series of investigations of the 
Finances of Egypt, conducted by Mr. Cave, Mr. 
Goschen, Mr. Romaine, and by a Commission of 
Inquiry. All these investigators were unable to 
come at the exact truth, for they were met at each 



Financial Difficulties. 455 

and every point with deceit and falsehood, so that 
the results shown by their figures are probably but 
an approach to the whole truth of the rottenness of 
the Khedive's government. 

Jerrold says: "It is now patent to the world 
that since that crisis at the end of 1875, which 
brought about the fall of Ismail's powerful minister 
and accomplice, his Highness has never ceased 
from endeavors to abstract his possessions from the 
power of his creditors, by making them over to his 
family, by setting up fictitious charges upon them, 
and by intercepting sums on their way from his 
estates or his provincial treasuries to the Public 
Debt Office. It was his wholesale dishonesty, 
indeed, that upset the Goschen-Joubert arrange- 
ment of November, 1876, and, by a series of scan- 
dalous revelations and contentions, so stirred pub- 
lic opinion, that a violent and sweeping remedy 
was at length insisted upon, in the shape of a semi- 
European Ministry, with Nubar Pasha at its head, 
and an English and French Minister at his elbow 
to guard the interests of Eg}^ptian bond-holders." 

The Goschen-Joubert arrangement left too much 
power in the hands of the Khedive, who always 
insisted that the nomination of the tax-gatherers 
should be left with himself. He employed only 



456 Ismail Khedive. 

such men as knew no master save the Khedive, and 
the consequences of this system soon appeared. 

All through the year 1877, things went badly in 
Egypt ; a bad Nile was added to the other difficul- 
ties, and the total lack of honor on the part of the 
Khedive was more and more plainly seen. During 
all this time he seemed to think only of the best 
mode by which his creditors could still be cheated, 
and of how to spend all the money possible upon 
himself. He relinquished no luxurious expendi- 
ture. His palace of Abclin was a scene of constant 
excitement and gayety, and he still went on with 
the erection of new palaces. 

If any creditor attempted to communicate with 
him, he coolly replied that all his affairs were now 
administered by his European Bankers. "Hun- 
dreds of his subjects, to say nothing of Europeans, 
are starving only a few yards from his doors ; but 
nevertheless the construction of three stately pal- 
aces, between Ghezireh and the Pyramids, is being 
proceeded with as before. Such being the case, it 
can scarcely be wondered at if his Highness's pop- 
ularity is not on the increase, or if his creditors 
refuse to acquiesce in any reduction in the interest 
stipulated for." The above extract from a letter 
read by Mr. Cobb before the Society of Arts, 



Prince Halim Pasha. 457 

shows the personal feeling which ran high against 
the Khedive. 

This dislike was increased by the fact that Ismail 
Khedive made the bad Nile, and the alleged dis- 
honesty of those who handled the revenues, an ex- 
cuse for the repudiation of a portion of his indebt- 
edness. In this he was checked summarily, and 
made to understand that the action of the Sultan 
could not be repeated by the Khedive. 

At this point, Prince Halim Pasha (the lawful 
heir whom the new law of succession had set aside, 
and the only surviving son of the Great Mohammed 
Ali,) wrote a letter from Constantinople, to which 
city he had been banished, advising the Khedive 
to give up all, honestly, to his creditors, to retrieve 
his character and regain the position which he had 
so disgracefully lost. He recommended to him to 
give up all the private property of his family, to 
place his financial matters fully and honorably in 
the hands of European financiers, and to leave no 
means untried to repair the faults and errors of his 
past. The letter, which was long, ended thus: 
" These are, briefly stated, Monseigneur, the prin- 
cipal measures which I implore you to undertake 
sincerely, and without delaj^. As for the results 
to be obtained therefrom, they will be beneficial to 



458 Ismail Khedive. 

you and to all, beyond your expectations. You 
will have lost, it is true, the free disposal of im- 
mense sums ; but }^ou will allow Egypt to lift up 
her head, and face the claims upon her, which she 
can, Avith regular administration, amply satisfy. 
The confidence of Europe and the affection of your 
people will be yours once more. May your High- 
ness be convinced that my present conduct is that 
of a relative devoted to you, and anxious for your 
welfare. 

"I am, Monseigneur, your Highness's most de- 
voted servant and uncle, 

"Halim." 

This letter produced such an effect in Egypt 
that Prince Halim would have been hailed with 
joy could he have been placed as a ruler over his 
rightful heritage. 

In March, 1878, the famous Commission of 
Inquiry was instituted by a decree. The Khedive 
opposed it in every way possible, but in spite of 
his machinations it was fully carried out, and the 
whole investigation completed in four months' 
time. 

The report of this inquiry was a surprise even 
to those who had best understood the state of the 
case before. It perfectly confirmed all that had 



Commissio7i of Inquiry. 459 

been alleged regarding the matters of appropriat- 
ing the lands of the people ; the fearful extrava- 
gance of the reigning family ; the extreme oppres- 
sion of the taxes, and the terrible cruelty employed 
in collecting them ; in short, the half had not been 
told. 

Following this report, Nubar Pasha, Mr. Rivers 
Wilson and M. DeBlignieres were made a Control- 
ling Ministry, and it was believed that a step had 
now been taken which would compel the Khedive 
to outward honesty, if nothing more. 

But, alas for the infatuation of associating 
the idea of honor with Ismail Khedive. In the 
face of all the guards which could be placed about 
him, he seized the money which was brought from 
the villages and perverted it to his own uses. The 
moudirs were in the service of their master, and 
when accused the)^ publicly declared that they 
knew no law but the will of the Khedive. 

At the beginning of the year 1879 it seemed that 
the affairs of Egypt were in a proper train to be 
controlled for the best. This control was three- 
fold : first, the International or Mixed Tribunals for 
the purpose of enforcing and protecting the claims 
of foreigners against the Government of the Khe- 
dive ; second, a Ministry in which were an English- 



460 Ismail Khedive, 

man and a Frenchman, without whose consent the 
Khedive could do nothing ; third, special officials 
charged to see that the arrangements made with 
public creditors were fulfilled. Of course there 
are many details which go to fill out this outline, 
but it embraces the principles upon which the 
whole work was carried on. Much hope was felt 
that this arrangement would prove sufficient to 
meet the exigencies of the Egyptian crisis, but 
early in the year the Khedive quarrelled with 
Nubar Pasha and dismissed him summarily from 
the Ministry. 

The Ministers remaining did not think it best to 
insist upon the restoration of Nubar Pasha, but 
when the Khedive wished to dismiss Riaz Pasha, a 
native official who was of great value, the Minis- 
ters did oppose him, and successfully too ; they also 
insisted that whoever composed the Ministry, it 
should have a full power of veto upon any meas- 
ure it disapproved. Their claims were enforced 
by a joint vote from the two Powers, which con- 
vinced the Khedive that he must yield this point 
or be dethroned. 

Soon after this trouble was arranged the Khe- 
dive made a more decided stand, and peremptorily 
dismissed the whole Ministry, Mr. Wilson and 



Ismail Pasha Deposed. 461 

M. DeBlignieres as well as the native officials, and 
appointed an entire Ministry of Pashas, men on 
whom he could rely, and thus threw down the 
gauntlet to England and France in a most cava- 
lier sort of manner. This honest gentleman 
declared that he had plenty of moneys but Mr. 
Wilson and M. DeBlignieres would not allow him 
to pay it to those whom he owed. This action 
roused much feeling all over the world, and 
although the Khedive and his Pashas began imme- 
diately to have a very good time on their old plan, 
to oppress again the natives and to get everything 
for themselves at any cost, this endured but a few 
weeks. 

All the European powers united, and as the 
Khedive would not resign, such an influence was 
brought to bear upon the Sultan that he deposed 
the Khedive and his eldest son, Tewfik Pasha, was 
made Viceroy. Thus ended the long and event- 
ful reign of Ismail Pasha, and on the thirtieth of 
June, 1879, he left Alexandria for Naples. Many 
people crowded the city to bid him farewell, and he 
appeared as unconcerned as if he were merely 
going on a pleasure trip, while every possible mark 
of respect was shown him by the people. " The 
Saturday Review" of July twelfth, 1879, says! 



462 Ismail Khedive. 

" A special train, a guard of honor, a military band 
playing what is poetically termed the Egyptian 
Hymn, officials in full costume, and groups of affec- 
tionate residents clustering to render him the 
homage of a respectful farewell, combined to indi- 
cate that the outgoing Pasha was a very good man, 
and deserved, at least in the Turkish sense, well of 
his country. 

"If he is doomed to pass the rest of his days in 
retirement, he will still be a striking example to 
all who are in a position to emulate him of what a 
first-class successful Pasha, can be, do, and obtain. 
After a brilliant career, in which he has reduced 
the mass under him to beggary, has built more 
palaces than he could count, and very mairy more 
than he could inhabit, has fought unsuccessful 
wars, and has awakened numerous jealousies among 
Christian nations, he retires, amid lavish demon- 
strations of honor and respect, to pass the evening 
of his days in a delightful climate, with everything 
that wealth can command at his disposal. This 
seems to be the ideal career of a Pasha, and it is 
something for any man to have exactly realized 
the special ideal of the class to which he belongs." 
: It is said that the Khedive is to receive £50,000 
a year, and his family are to receive the same 




CALL, TO PRAYEIi. 



Action of the Porte. 465 

amount, and that this is all to be deducted from the 
£150,000 which is allowed to Tewfik Pasha. 

At the same time that the Sultan issued the 
firman which deposed Ismail Khedive, he sent out 
a second one which annulled the firman of 1873, 
which conferred the power upon the ruler of Egypt 
to make treaties with foreign nations. By this 
decree the Sultan made it necessary for the Eu- 
ropeans to treat with the Porte concerning any 
arrangement to be made for the settlement of the 
Egyptian financial questions. This measure was 
very objectionable ; it would cause great delaj^s 
in the transaction of affairs, and would render 
it possible to even appeal from the decisions of the 
Mixed Tribunals to the authority at Constanti- 
nople. 

The Powers therefore used their influence at 
Constantinople to the end that nothing should be 
done to complicate the already difficult matter of 
arranging the great debt which Egypt owed to 
Europeans. After much negotiation this matter 
was arranged in a manner which satified the Pow- 
ers, and took nothing from the authority and dig- 
nity of the Sultan as Suzerain of Egypt. 

One of the early acts of Tewfik Khedive was to 
send a peremptory letter to Nubar Pasha at Paris, 



466 Ismail Khedive. 

commanding him not to attempt to return to Egypt. 
This outrageous act was so resented by the Pow- 
ers, who had in reality given the young Khedive 
his authority, that he hastened to rescind this 
order and to send another letter to France which 
allowed the Khedive's late Prime Minister to re- 
turn officially to Egypt before the end of the year — 
which letter was given to Nubar Pasha by M. Wad- 
dington, August 7, 1879. 

Naturally many questions arose for consideration 
as to the formation of the government or cabinet 
of the new Khedive, and as under existing circum- 
stances the European Powers, more especially Eng- 
land and France, were to be consulted and satisfied, 
several months were passed in preliminary pour- 
parlers and correspondence. 

Mr. Baring on the part of England, and M. de 
Blignieres on that of France, were made Controllers 
of Egyptian Finance, and proceeded to Cairo in 
November, 1879. 

It is of course impossible as yet to speak of 
Tewfik Khedive as a ruler of Egypt. But it is to 
be hoped that Egypt has seen her darkest days, 
and that they preceded a light which shall make 
the old " House of Bondage" a prosperous land. 

The reports that have come of late (December, 



General Improvement. 467 

1879) represent a hopeful state of things. A cor- 
respondent of the " London Times" writes that the 
fine crops of cotton, grain, sugar and beans have 
caused great activity and cheerfulness. He says : 
" The harbor is crowded with merchantmen, the 
railway is blocked with trains. Yesterday three 
long trains, all fully laden, were waiting outside 
the city while the others were being unloaded. 
The big canal is crowded with barges, the business 
streets are crammed with carts, and all these means 
of transport are laden with cotton and grain and 
cotton-seed. From eight in the morning to eight at 
night the merchants are in their stores or at the 
market, and many a worn face, made dull by bad 
times, is now bright and eager with the prospect 
of gain. The tradesmen, and more especially the 
purveyors of luxury, are looking up. Year after 
year of failing finance and feeble trade had told 
upon them. But they are doing well now, and if 
this present brimming Nile brings crops as it sub- 
sides as abundant as those we now profit b} r , all 
Egypt may fairly hope for a permanent return of 
the old prosperous times. The noble mansions and 
comfortable villas which Syrian capitalists, fearful 
of the variations of Egyptian stocks, and no longer 
caring to invest in them as they did, have run up 



468 Ismail Khedive, 

round the city, may also find good rents and com- 
petent occupants. Indeed, all Alexandria is look- 
ing confidently, and with some reason, to mate- 
rial improvement/' 

Let us be grateful that our last words may thus 
be words of cheer, and let us hope that the time 
is not far distant when the poet's vision may be- 
come reality. 

" Out of all this a Presence comes, and stands 

Full-fronted, as who turns upon the Past, 

Modern among the ancients, and the last 

Of re-born, risen nations : in her hands, 

That once so many sceptres held, and rods, 

A. palm leaf set with jewels : Princess, she — 

She has her palaces along the Nile, 

Her navies on the sea; - 

And in the temples of her fallen gods 

(Not hers— she-knows but the One God overall), 

She hears from holy mosques the muezzin's call, 

"Lo, Allah is most great ! " And when the dawn 

Is drawing near, " Prayer better is than sleep." 

She rides abroad ; her curtains are undrawn — 

She walks with lifted veil, nor hides her smile, 

Nor the sweet, luminous eyes, where languors creep 

No more: She is no more Circassian girl, 

But Princess, woman with the mother breast ; 

No Cleopatra to dissolve the pearl 

And take the asp — the East became the West ! 

Honor to Egypt — honor ; 

May Allah smile upon her ! " 



LIST OF NOMES OR ANCIENT DIVISION OF 
EGYPT. 

(As given In B rugs efts u Egypt under the Pharaohs."*) 

Kemi (Egypt) and its Nomes, according to the 
List of the Monuments. 

I. — Patoris (the South Country, Upper Egypt), 
i st Nome. Capital; Ab. (Elephantine). 

Deities : Khnum and Sopet (Sothis). 
2nd Nome. Capital: Teb (Apollinopolis Magna). 

Deities : Hor (Apollo) of Hut, and Hathor 
(Aphrodite). 
3rd Nome. Capital : Nekheb (Eileithyiapolis). 

Deity : The goddess Nekheb. 
4th Nome. Capital: Ni or Ni-amon (Diospolis Mag- 
na). 
Deities: Amon-ra (Zeus) and the goddess 
Mut. 
5th Nome. Capital: Qobti (Koptos). 

Deity: Khim (Pan). 
6th Nome. Capital : Tanterer (Tentyra). 

Deities : Hathor and Hor-samta. 
469 



47° List of Nomes. 

7th Nome. Capital : Ha (Arab, Hou, Diospolis Par- 
va). 

Deities: Nebtha (Nephthys and Nofer- 
hotep. 
8th Nome. Capital: Abdu (Abydos). 

Deity : Anhur (Mars). 
9th Nome. Capital: Apu (Panooplis). 

Deity : Khim (Pan). 
10th Nome. Capital : Tebu (Aphroditopolis). 

Deity: Hor-mati. 
nth Nome. Capital: Shas-Hotep (Hypsele). 

Deity : Khnum. 
12th Nome. Capital : Ni-ent-bak (Antaeopolis). 

Deities : Hor and Mati (Isis). 
13th Nome. Capital : Siout (Lycopolis). 

Deities: Ap-maten (Anubis) " of the 
South," and Hathor. 
14th Nome. Capital : Qors, Qos (Cusae). 

Deity: Mat (Themis). 
15th Nome. Capital : Khimunu (Hermopolis). 

Deity ; Thut (Hermes). 
1 6th Nome. Capital : Hibonou (Hipponon). 

God:. Hor. 
17th Nome. Capital : Qasa (Cynonpolis). 

God: Anup (Anubis). 
18th Nome. Capital : Ha-Suten (Alabastronopolis). 

God: Anup. 
19th Nome. Capital : Pi-maza (Oxyrhynchus). 

God : Set (Typhon). 
20th Nome. Capital : Khinensu (Heracleopolis Mag- 
na). 

God: Khnum called Her-shaf. 



List of Notnes. 



47i 



2 1 st Nome. Capital; Smen-hor (Ptolemais ? ). 

God : Khnum. 
2 2d Nome. Capital: Tep-ah (Aphroditopolis). 
Deity; Hathor. 



II. — Patomhit (the North Country, Lower Egypt). 
1 st Nome. Capital : Men-nofer (Memphis). 

Deities ; Ptah (Hephaestus), and Sokhet. 
2nd Nome. Capital : Sokhem (Letopolis). 

God : Hor (-uer) 
3rd Nome. Capital : Ni-ent-hapi (Apis). 

Goddess : Senti (Hathor-Nub). 
4th Nome. Capital : Zoq'a (Canopus). 

Deities : Amon-ra and Neit (Athena). 
5th Nome. Capital : Sa (Sai's) 

Goddess; Neit. 
6th Nome. Capital; Khesuu (Xois). 

God; Amon-ra. 
7th Nome. Capital: Sonti-nofer (Metelis). 

Deities: He, "Lord of the West," and 
Isis. 
8th Nome. Capital : Thukot (Sethro'i) 

Deities : Turn (Helios), and Hathor. 
9th Nome. Capital : Pi-usir (Busiris). 

God: Osiris. 
10th Nome. Capital : Ha-ta-hir-ab (Athribis). 

Deities : Hor-khont-khethi, and the god- 
dess Khut. 
nth Nome. Capital : Qa-hebes (Cabasus). 

Deity : Isis. 
12th Nome. Capital : Theb-nuter (Sebennytus). 

God : Anhur (Mars). 



472 List of Nomes, 

13th Nome. Capital ' : Anu (On, Heliopolis). 

Deities: Hormakhu (Helios) and the 
goddess Iusas. 
14th Nome. Capital : Zo'an (Tanis). 

Deities: Hor and the goddess Khont 
Abot. 
15th Nome. Capital : Pi-thut (Hermopolis). 

Deities : Thut and the goddess No-hem- 
ani. 
16th Nome. Capital : Pi-bi-neb-dad (Mendes). 

Deities : Bi-neb-dad (Mendes), and the 
goddess Ha-mehit. 
17th Nome. Capital : Pi-khun-en-amon (Diospolis). 

Deities : Amon-ra and the goddess Mut. 
18th Nome. Capital : Pi-Bast (Bubastis). 

Goddess : Bast. 
19th Nome. Capital : Pi-uto (Buto). 

Goddess : Uto (Isis). 
20th Nome. Capital : Qosem (Phacussa). 

God: Sapt, "the Lord of the East." 









H 



% 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Abbas Pasha, murder of 408, 410 

Aboukir, battle of 357 

Abraham, legend of 336 

Abu Simbel 1 76 

Abydos, temple at 166, 169 

Achmed Pasha 357, 360, 368 

Ai, the Holy Father 149 

Alexandria, founding of 220 

Alexandrian University 227 

Alexandrian Library, destruction of 299 

Alexandrian Library, founding of 227 

Amru, story of 311 

Ancient Divisions of Egypt 23 

Apis Bulls, account of 199,205,213,220 

Arsinoe, founding of 233 

Auletes, "the flute player," 256 

Baba, tomb of 95 

Bakhatana, princess of 190 

"Barrage du Nil," 405, 414 

Battle of the Pyramids 353 

Bek, the architect 144 

Belzoni's Tomb 156 

Beni-Hassan, tombs of 69 

Berenice, founding of 233 

Bes, the god 63 

Beyrout 176 

Boulak, museum of 56, 80, 134 

Brugsch-Bey 55, 63, 67. 90, 95, 128, 147, 172, 175, 209 

Bubastis, temple at 197 

Cairo, founding of 320 

Canal from Nile to Red Sea 233 

Caracalla, treachery of 281 

Cheops 38 

Cherif Pasha 449 

Chosroes of Persia 306 

Cleopatra's Needles 266 

Commerce with India 65, 271 

Constantinople 290 

473 



474 Index. 

PAGE. 

Corvee, The 435 

Crocodile, The 83, 89 

Dastagerd, palace of 30 g 

Doric Column, origin of ~ t 



Edfou, temple at 99 

Educational System 400, 430 

Egypt, highest prosperity of 242 

Egyptian Worship at Rome 265, 275 

El-Kab, tomb at 99, 107, 141 

Esneh, temple at 241 

Exodus, time of 95 

Gnosticism .. .. 278 

Green Chamber, The 31 

Hadrian and Antinous, visit to Egypt 276 

Hall of Columns at Karnak 155 

Hammamat, expedition to 188 

Harris Papyrus 183 

Hashop, Queen '. 109 

Homer, temple of 245 

Hyksos or Shepherd Kings < . 86 

Ibis, the 97 

Institute of Egypt 361 

Ismai'la, city of 438 

Ismai'1 Pasha 397 

Ismail Sadyk Pasha 450 

Joseph, time of 94 

Joseph's Well 338 

Judaean War 198 

Julian Year, introduction of 264 

Khafra, statues of 50 

Khedive, the late, gift to America 266, 419, 427, 454, 461 

Khnumhotep, tomb of 75 

Khuaten, tomb and sculptures of 145, 146 

Kleber, General 372 

His Proclamation, 373 ; Assassination of, 376. 

Labyrinth, wonderful 84 

Makoukas, treachery of 312 

Mamelukes, slaughter of 3S2, 389, 391 

Manetho, writings of 38, 207, 209, 234 

Medinet Abu 1S4, 188 

Mena, King 27 

Memnon, statues of 134 

Memnonium, The 155, 160, 166 



Index. 475 



PAGE. 

Memphis, founding of 27 

Menou, General 376, 380 

Mineptah II., Pharaoh of the Exodus 178 

Mceris Lake 80 

Mohammed 310 

Mohammed Ali 378, 381, 3S6 

Goes to Mecca, 395, 39-9; Private Life, 401; Death, 406. 

Monasteries 293, 299 

Monastery of St. Catherine 303 

Musical statue [37 

Mut, the goddess 141 

Napoleon Bonaparte 344, 345 

Famous Proclamation, 349; Enters Cairo, 355; Battles with the 
Mamelukes, 356; Syrian Campaign, 365; Surrender of Jaffa, 366; 
Siege of Acre, 368 ; Again at Jaffa, 369 ,' Return to Cairo, 370 ; 
Leaves Egypt, 371. 

Negroes, as artists 149 

Nicopolis, founding of 263 

Nilometers 20 

Nilometer at Elephantine 264 

Nimrod, statue of, at Florence 194 

Nitocris, story of 59 

Nubar Pasha 443, 459 

Oasis of Amnion 220, 223 

Obelisks, removal of 128 

Obelisks removed to Rome 263 

Omar, destruction of books 3x7 

Osymandyas, statue of 161 

Paper, origin of word 251 

" Papyrus Judicaire " 187 

Parchment, origin of word 251 

Pashas, magnificence of 332 

Patah, the god 28 

Pentaur, poem by 174 

Pergamus, library at . . 251 

Persecution of Christians 2S9 

Philae, temple at 23S 

Pompey's Pillar 2S9 

Port Said — Great Sea-walls 43S, 442 

Prince Halim 423, 457 

Prisse-papyrus 54 

Ptolemais, city of 233 

Ptolemy Soter, works at Alexandria 228 

Punt, land of 61 

Pyramid, the great 42 



47 6 Index. 

PAGE. 

Ramses TIL, riches of 184 

Ramses VI., tomb of 189 

Riaz Pasha 450, 460 

Rosetta Stone 16, 246 

Rouge, M 175 

Said Pasha 413, 417 

Saladin 320 

Scribes 35 

Serapis, worship of 234 

Sesostris, tomb of 178 

Set, the god 89 

Shadoof, The 23 

Silsilis 103, 152, 198 

Slave Trade 436 

Smith, Sir Sidney 375 

Sphinx, the great 50, 132 

Sphinxes, avenue of 138 

Stage Temple, The 112 

Statues of the Nile 20 

St. Macarius 296 

St. Mark in Egypt 272 

St. Mary of Egypt 293 

Strabo's Journey 265 

Suez 441 

Suez Canal 362, 417, 425, 437, 441 

Syenite Granite 45 

Tables of Sakkarah and Abydos 36, 38, 49, 53. 59 

Tell-el-Amarna 143, 150 

Tewfik Pasha 461 

Thebes, ruin of 255 

Thi, Queen 142 

Thut or Thoth, the god 96 

Ti, tomb of S3 

Translation of the Scriptures into Greek 234 

Treasures carried to Rome 263 

Turin, musuera at 150, 191 

Triumphs : 119 

Turin Papyrus , 36, 38 

Ulema, The 34 1 

Una, story of 56 

Wahabis, The 39° 

Zenobia , account of 288 

Zoan-Tanis 169 

Zodiac at Denderah 266 



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